Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Like curtain cats. Curtain Everybody

would make their way to a seat, please. Good morning. Isn't it fantastic to have all these young folks with us this morning? We're so thrilled to have you all here this morning and the parents and the coaches and so forth. I also wanna recognize mayor Pat Bates is here from the city of Alamonte Springs, and city manager Frank Martz are also with us today.

So thank you all for joining and supporting your little league. Fantastic stuff. We're gonna start today's meeting, which is 09/23/2025, by having our cell phones silenced. Any other other electronic devices you may have, if you take a moment, check those, make sure they're in silent mode, we'd appreciate that very much. Our invocation this morning will be done by pastor Bob Melhorn from Integrity Church. So if you would all stand, please. And I would ask commissioner Lockhart to lead us in the pledge.

Good morning, everyone. Let's pray. Creator God, on this day when our Jewish brothers and sisters move into their high holy days, We accept this as a as a gift, all of us do, the gift of precious time, another day to enjoy your creation, another day to grow and become the people you made us to be, another day to to serve our neighbor. We thank you deeply. We thank you for the energy in this room, for all these young athletes, and we thank you for raising up coaches and leaders to guide them.

We ask your blessing upon all these families. Father, we would pray that the time we spend today would produce results that are pleasing to you. We ask your blessing upon our commissioners, upon our our county manager, our county attorney, upon all who work for for Seminole County. We ask your protection for all those who keep us safe, and we pray for all who make Seminole County their home. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Amen. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I

Thank you, commissioner Lockhart. Thank you, pastor Melhorn. Alright. Well, we're gonna move to our proclamations this morning and our resolutions. This will be for several of our youth sports teams here in the county with Alamont Baseball, Lake Mary Little League, and Sanford Babe Ruth League. I've asked each district commissioner that, is the district commissioner for those individual districts and those cities belonging to read those proclamations. So we'll start with Altamonte baseball. Commissioner Constantine.

Thank you very much, commissioner Zinbauer. And I just wanted to say that I am so very proud of each and every one of the the youth baseball programs that are here today. This is not a new phenomenon, as you all know. You all have had a series of successes over the last number of years. But just if I can speak to you about a little bit of history, this all started back in the mid eighties when Altamonte Springs went to the, Little League World Series and, played for the first time for any team from Central Florida.

So, we, in Seminole County, from each and every one of you, you have made this the epicenter of youth baseball in The United States and the world. And I am very, very proud of all of you, but more but just as proud of your coaches and your parents who have sacrificed so much to ensure that you all would be successes. So I am very honored to today propose this resolution and motion of this resolution by the Board of County Commissioners recognizing the Altamonte Baseball Academy eight under and nine under all star teams and district champions and the 12 under all star team as the twenty twenty five Cal Ripken 12 and under National World Series champions.

Whereas

Whereas the city of Altamonte Springs has always had a long standing tradition of providing baseball opportunities to children throughout Seminole County, and whereas Altamonte Springs joined the Babe Ruth Baseball Association in 1994 and then established the Altamonte Baseball Academy in 2015 to provide greater opportunities for children to focus on the core principles of baseball fundamentals and player development and currently provides baseball programs to over 1,500 kids each year. And whereas the Altamonte Baseball Academy, eight under boys all star baseball team proudly represented the city of Altamonte Springs, Seminole County, and District 11 at the district championships and won the district championship. The team won all four games, scored 63 runs, gave up only 17 for a plus 30 run differential. And whereas the Altamonte Baseball Academy nine under all star baseball team proudly represented the city of Altamonte Springs, Seminole County, and District 11 at the district championships and won the district championship. The team won all four games, scored 40 runs, and gave up only 10 runs for a 46% differential.

And whereas the Altamonte Baseball Academy twelve under all star team proudly represented the city of Altamonte Springs, Seminole County, and District 11 at the twenty twenty five Cal Ripon World Series. And whereas Altamonte Babe Ruth twelve under All Star team went all the way to become the national champions of The United States. This is the fourth consecutive World Series this team has participated in, winning the two out winning two out of the last four years. The team has an incredible run with six wins, one loss, 56 runs scored, only 19 runs allowed for a 37 run differential and earned the crown of the twenty twenty five Cal Ripken World Series US champions and was the best team in The United States and the second best team in the world. And whereas the youth, affluent athletes, and coaches of the Altamonte Baseball Academy, eight under boys, nine under, and 12 under all star team, through their unwavering dedication, exceptional teamwork, and relentless perseverance have become hometown heroes for the city of Altamonte Springs and Seminole County, setting an inspiring example of commitment and passion for the entire community.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, the board of county commissioners of Seminole County, Florida, do hereby congratulate the Altamonte Baseball Academy eight under, nine under, and 12 under all star teams for their historic accomplishment and tremendous achievement this past season.

Second.

Thank you, commissioner Constantine. What we're

gonna do, folks, as we finish these proclamations or resolutions, we'll get a photograph opportunity as soon as the last one's read, so be patient with us. Next one up is going to be quote vote. Did I get a second?

You did. You did.

Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed like sign? Seeing none. Carries unanimous. Thank you.

Mhmm. Next was hard to hear over all

the Yeah. All the stuff.

Commissioner Lockhart love.

Yeah.

For the Lake Mary Little League.

That's right. Thank you, commissioners. I would like to move the following resolution of the Seminole County Board of County commissioners recognizing the Lake Mary Little League twenty twenty five twelve U All Star softball team and the twelve U All Star baseball team. Whereas Lake Mary Little League, which was established in 1992, has been providing baseball and softball opportunities to children throughout Seminole County. Whereas the Lake Mary Little League twelve U softball team with an impressive sixteen and three record proudly represented the city of Lake Mary, Seminole County, and District 19, and competed in and won the district championship, the state championship, and the Southeast Regional Championship.

And whereas the Lake Mary Little League twelve u softball team made history with its first ever appearance in the first Florida team in thirty years to reach the Little League Softball World Series, where they showed exceptional performance and finished in third place after a three to one loss to the eventual champion, Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the quarterfinals. And whereas the Lake Mary Little League twelve u baseball team with a twelve and one record proudly represented the city of Lake Mary, Seminole County, and District 19 and competed in and won the district championship and the state championship. And whereas the Little League twelve u baseball team proudly represented the city of Lake Mary, Seminole County, and the North Florida District at the twenty twenty five little league southeast regional tournament where they finished in second place. And whereas the young athletes and coaches of the Lake Mary Little League softball and baseball all star teams through their unwavering dedication, exceptional teamwork, and relentless perseverance have become hometown heroes for the city of Lake Mary and Seminole County, setting an inspiring example of commitment and passion for the entire community. Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, the Board of County Commissioners of Seminole County, Florida, do hereby congratulate Lake Mary Little League and the 12 U All Star softball and baseball teams for their historic accomplishment and tremendous achievement this past season, adopted this September 2025.

Second. Motion second. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed like sign carries unanimously. Next up as we work our way around the county will be Sanford's Babe Ruth League, and this will be read by district commissioner Her.

We couldn't be prouder of all of you representing our community well. Commissioners, I offer the following resolution of the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners recognizing the Sanford Babe League Twenty Twenty Five Eight And Under All Star Team and the 12. Whereas the city of Sanford and the Sanford Babe Ruth League have always had a long standing tradition of providing baseball opportunities to approximately 900 kids each year throughout Seminole County. And whereas the Babe Ruth All Stars eight u baseball team proudly represented the city of Sanford, Seminole County, and District 4 at the state championship tournament held in Lake City, Florida, and competed in and won the Northern Florida District four tournament at New Smyrna Beach, Florida, going four and zero during the tournament. And whereas the Sanford Babe Ruth eight and under All Stars received an invitation to play in the World Series in Ocala, Florida, where they showed exceptional performance in pool play and made it to the tournament finals where they lost in a close game, six to four, to the champions from Aruba.

Whereas the Sanford Babe Ruth All Stars twelve and under baseball team competed in and won the Northern Florida District four tournament, sending them to the state championship held in Jacksonville, Florida, where the team won their first Babe Ruth state championship and finished the season eight with an eight and four record. And whereas the Sanford Baseball All Stars twelve and under team proudly represented Sanford, Seminole County, and North Florida District at the Babe Ruth Southeast Regional Tournament, where they finished in third place in the Southeast Region with wins against teams from South Carolina and North Carolina and finished the season with an 11 to three final record. And whereas the young athletes and coaches of the Sanford Babe Ruth eight u and 12 u all star teams, through their unwavering dedication, exceptional teamwork, and relentless perseverance have become hometown heroes for the city of Sanford and Seminole County, setting an inspiring example of commitment and passion for the entire community. Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, the Board of County Commissioners of Seminole County, Florida, do hereby congratulate the Sanford Babe Ruth League's eight and under, 12 under all star teams and their parents for their historic accomplishments and tremendous achievement this past season.

2025 Babe Ruth, eight and under All Star team, Babe Ruth World Series runner-up, and the 2025 Sanford Babe Ruth 12 and under all star team Babe Ruth State champions, adopted this September 2025.

Second. Motion and second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Closed like sign carries unanimous. Congratulations. She's gonna ask mister Danny Trossett to come down. We'll get organized photos ready for everybody to take. So we're gonna take a short photo outbreak to get everybody's photos with the parents, coaches, the commission, and those that wanna be in the photos. Mister Trossett?

Alright. Thank you, commissioners. And again, thank you to all the teams, parents, coaches for being here today. We really, really appreciate it. The first photo will have the eight u b team from Altamonte Baseball Academy.

The 8U team, if you can come down for a photo. Alright. Thank you guys so much. Let's get another round of applause. Mayhew team.

Okay. Next, can we have the nine u all star team from Altamonte? The nine u team come on down for a picture. Alright. Thank you, ninety team.

Let's give a big round of applause. And then if we could have the 12 U National World Series champions team come on down. Alright. Let's give another big round of applause for the National World Series champion, Penaltomar. Okay.

If I can have, the 12 from Lake Mary come on down. Alright. Again. Lake Berry baseball team. Twelve U.

Alright. If we can have the Sanford AU All Star team. Sanford AU All Star

team. Come

on down. Congratulations again to all of our incredible teams on your outstanding accomplishment. Thank you all so much again for coming this morning.

Folks, somebody's left a set of keys to a Chrysler Dodge Plymouth product. Set of keys were found. That was fun. Did I

go too far? Because they're not

going too far. That's right.

Got it. Listen. The kids are gonna be as slow as they can to get back to school.

I was gonna buddy stay the rest of the meeting. Well, while they're leaving the chambers

Uh-huh.

I think we all would agree that it's great to see our young people, you know, achieving these great accomplishments here in our community, and that's really something we all are very proud of. And and it's these human interest stories that that we so relish here in Seminole County and supporting our our youth through our school systems and each and every city out there that have these programs to help our young folks. And of course, the parents, and the coaches that, you know, they they have to uproot their entire lives a lot of times for these baseball teams and travel teams that they spend a lot of their own money. They have to raise their own money, to get these children to go to these out of town meets and so forth. It just speaks volumes of our community.

So thank thank you all again for being here to help us celebrate that. Next up, we're going to go to our investment adviser report. Mister McIntyre, welcome.

Good morning. Good to see everybody.

Good morning.

Okay. Where are we?

Seminole County.

Besides that, got that.

There's as much noise in your industry right now as there was just a minute ago in air.

It goes without saying. It's continues to be turbulent, continues to be uncertain. The labor market continues to weaken. Not sure if that's gonna necessarily continue in the next month, sort of looking at the fact that third quarter is not slowing. Of course, we've talked about a slowdown coming for a long time. Talked about recession coming for a long time. It doesn't look like it's on the horizon. Third quarter seems to be stronger than than the second quarter was. Inflation continues to trend gradually higher, and that's sort of the key. It's not moving nearly in in the leaps and bounds that people anticipated.

Some feel like when we move into the fourth quarter, we'll see goods inflation, which would be related to all the purchasing we do in the quarter. The Fed ended its pause. They've been on pause since December. They rate I'm sorry. They lowered rates, last week by a quarter. The question is how much more did they do it? They expect they're gonna lower it twice more this year. That's really a coin flip, to be honest with you. Of the 19 members that are on the FOMC, you had six of them that don't believe that there should be any more cuts this year. There were a handful only eight of the 19 thought there would be two.

So it's very, very spread out. I think that a lot of that has to do with what the the numbers are actually gonna do, how things are gonna come in. This is it's amazing how quickly these things get dated. The September survey doesn't come out until this week, so this is August. Take it with a grain of salt. You know, I think there's always a little bit of pessimism with the economists. So they expected that third quarter growth was going to be at 1.1%. It's trending above two. That generally means more hiring in the fourth quarter ahead, so we'll see if that happens. I would expect that going into the season, there typically is more seasonal hiring.

So these economists believe that the Fed will also cut twice this year. I think the only one that's really baked in is the just before Halloween rate cut. We expect that'll be another quarter, and then December really would depend on what the numbers look like. A little delay there. Sorry about that.

Okay. That is it. I I try to show you the two year treasury note yield over the course of last year. So you can sort of see, if you look on the right hand side, that we're nearly the lowest that we've been in in quite some time for the two year. The other day, it got below $3.50.

Fortunately, and I've I've said this before, but most of the purchases that are out on the deeper in the portfolio with longer maturities were made in in January and December. So at a fortuitous time and yields have moved down since then. So I need to do batteries or a stronger thumb. Oh, thank you very much. This, as as has been the case, I've tried to show you going back for meetings what yields have done.

I think the thing to focus on is treasuries in, like, the twenty four to thirty six month range. And and I can't see that all that well, but I I think that left hand side is above 4%, and now we're closer to three fifty five. Kind of been a long time in coming, I think, but I I do believe that the idea of of rates moving lower is not as concrete as it was as we roll forward, but certainly, they'll they'll gradually move lower as the Fed cuts. Okay. So upcoming maturities, there are a couple more this month, and and those are the ones that we've we've talked to the clerk's office quite a bit about cash flows.

You're in a drain period. You're still in a drain period. Mines are positioned to to pay your expenses. For the most part, those expenses have been paid. You've got ample liquidity at this point as we roll forward. According to cash flows, the clerk's office feels like we can reinvest both of those maturities at the end of this month. The best spot to to position those is going to be in next summer. So not going out quite as far, but but the expenses this summer were a little bit higher than I had thought they would be. So we're positioning more monies in the the summer months next year to be able to account for that. So it's fairly basic.

There's been a long period of time where there's been some reinvestments, but mostly, the monies that have matured in proceeds have been used to pay expenses. This is going to, end for the most part, and there's going to be some opportunities to reinvest, and and that's essentially what we're asking for here. Things to look at, of course, the two year at $3.55, sort of keep that in The portfolio was yielding at the August a four thirty three. With the reinvestments and the maturities, we expect that that we will still be right at four thirty by the September. And, you know, for the most part, the portfolio, because there's so much that is that is locked in, the portfolio is as the Fed cuts, should perform well, relatively speaking, for what that's worth.

And there is your I think that's going to wind up the portfolio yield should separate itself from those treasury benchmarks as as we roll forward. So and I was asking you for a motion because I tripped over, but are there any questions?

Yes. Any any inquiries to the investment adviser?

Mister chairman, I'd like to make a motion to invest a recommendation implement the recommendations of our financial advisor based on the reports submitted today and recommend the clerk implement said board's recommendations.

Motion

and second. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Like sign? Hearing none. Carries unanimous. Thank you, Mr. McIntyre, and good luck on your adventure on the daily track and all this. You're earning your keep now.

It feels like it. I'm in front of a lot of governing bodies more so than before. Oh, sure. I appreciate it.

Thank you all. Thank you. Alright.

Next up is gonna be our consent agenda. I'm gonna ask the county attorney, miss Kate Latour, to read the rules of public participation. Miss Latour?

Thank you, chairman. Good morning. Florida law provides that members of the public shall be given a reasonable opportunity to be heard on propositions before the board of county commissioners, except when the board is acting on emergency or ministerial matters or conducting a meeting exempt from the requirements of the Sunshine Law. Individuals shall be permitted three minutes each for public comment or six minutes when the individual is an official representative of a formal association or group. The chairman may modify the maximum time for public comment with sole discretion when appropriate.

Public comments on quasi judicial or other public hearing items, including the second budget public hearing scheduled for later this afternoon, will occur during the Board's consideration of those items. Public comments on pending procurement matters or on non agenda items shall not be permitted at this time. Members of the public desiring to make public comment must fill out a speaker form and present the form to staff, and forms are available in the lobby. Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, mister Tor. And we're gonna have a reminder, if there's anybody here to speak on items three through 18, you'll need a speaker's form, which you can get in the lobby, bring it up front, hand it to the clerk right here, and we'll make sure that you get your moment to speak to us about those items. I will go to the county manager. Do you have any updates, deletions, additions to the consent agenda?

Thank you, mister chairman and commissioners. No changes to the consent agenda this morning.

Very good. Any commissioner desire to pull a separate item for consideration? Seeing none, then I will look for motions for three through 18, including three and four of its constitutional officers. Mister chairman Commissioner I

I will move to consent items three and four from the constitutional officers and items five through 18, which are the county manager consent agenda items. Second.

Motion and second. We have anybody here from the public who wants to speak on this?

No,

So make sure we get the record, we'll close the public input. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed, like sign? Seeing none, carries unanimously.

We're going to take a short break because we have a photo request the consent agenda. We're going take a quick break, and then we'll come back to our regular agenda. Commissioners, if you'll join me on the floor. So quiet in here.

Don't have a 100 kids. I

remember back to those days when we had so much energy like that. I'm sure my parents are glad I'm out of that space. All right. Next up, we are going to go to our regular agenda. We are going to have reduction of lien request, consideration of applicant. This will be presented by John Martin, code enforcement division manager. Mister Martin?

Good morning. How was everyone this morning? Wonderful. Got a lot going on this morning, but we're ready to proceed forward if you are.

Please. Floor is yours.

Alright. Development services, regular agenda item. Do you clip these or do I? Yes, Up to me. Okay.

Property in question is 1208 Helen Street located in the unincorporated Seminole County section of Apopka. This is a request for reconsideration or reduction of liens. There were two code enforcement violations on this property, uncultivated vegetation and rubbish, two county code enforcement liens totaling $195,104.4 The applicant has made a request to reduce the liens to $2,500 or the administrative cost of $12.00 $4.40. The previous owners had brought the property into compliance for one of the violations, and the applicant is further continuing to work on this property to avoid any further violations. Lien number one summary is for case number Nineteen-one12CEB.

The violation was originally cited from the cultivated vegetation on January 2019. On 07/25/2019, the CEB issued and that's code enforcement board, I apologize issued the findings and facts conclusions of law and order requiring compliance by 08/09/2019, or a daily fine of $50 per day may be imposed. On October 2439, at the compliance hearing, the CEB issued an order finding compliance and imposing a fine ordering opposing a fine and lien ordering of the fine amount of $3,700 for a total of seventy four days of non compliance be reduced to the administrative cost of $389.64 if paid for by 11/23/2019, or the original lien amount would revert back to $3,700. As the reduced fine was not paid, lien number one now totals $43.64 57. Case number two, lane number two, summary for case number 19113DashCEB.

The violation was for rubbish on January 2019. On 07/25/2019, the code enforcement board issued the findings and facts, conclusion of law and order requiring compliance by 08/09/2019, or a daily fine of $100 per day may be imposed. On 10/24/2019 compliance hearing, the code enforcement board issued an order finding noncompliance imposing a finer lien of $7,600 for a total of seventy six days of noncompliance, which will continue to accrue at $100 per day until brought to compliance. The affidavit of compliance states of the violation was rectified as 10/24/2024. Lien number two totals $190,739.83 The property financial summary here you can see is for 1208 Helen Street.

It was sold to Ocala LLC via a quick claim deed. The assessed value of the property is noted as 165,212. Lien numbers one and lien numbers two together combined is one hundred ninety five thousand one hundred and four forty. The review criteria, the deputy county manager determined that this request did not fail the threshold of the SEC criteria. The following was evaluated.

The amount of the lien compared to the value of the property, the amount of the liens recorded on the twenty twenty four assessed value of the property, the actions taken or not taken by the property owners in attempt to abate the violation. For case number Nineteen-one12, the violation of uncultivated vegetation was corrected by the prior owner on the day of the lean hearing. The property was in violation for two point five months. For case number 19113CEB, the violation of rubbish continued for five years. The violation was removed from the property by the prior owners as of 10/24/2024.

The amount of time it's been on this project, the GOM compliance period spanned in approximate five years with a collective twenty nine point seven five hours of staff time. Request for reduced amount, The applicant requests that the board make an exception to its established guidelines and reduce the total amount secured by the liens of $195,104.40 dollars to $2,500 or to the total administrative costs of $12,440 The applicant requested the board additionally consider the following, the community improvement. The applicant stated that when he purchased the property, it was in extremely poor, hazardous conditions. Reporting conditions of the property pose a serious threat and risk to the surrounding community. He states that he has fully remedied the property interior and removed all animal waste.

The administrative cost, he is not requesting a reduction of this waiver of administrative cost. Applicant states that given a substantial cleanup and repair cost he's personally undertaking, that they would like the board's consideration for removing the accrued fees. Well, the application's request is to reduce the final determination of the applicant's request of a reduction of to the code enforcement liens, a total administrative cost of $12.00 $4.40. And should the liens be reduced, authorize the chairman to execute a satisfaction of lien upon payment of the approved amounts, if any. And that concludes this presentation. Is there any questions?

Thank you, John. Commissioner Lockhart.

I know there was a minor typo in the summary that kind of caused me a little confusion having to do with whether or not the property was brought into compliance by the previous or the current property owner. But now I I and so I checked that box in my brain. Yeah. But now I'm curious if if the property was brought into compliance prior to this property owner purchasing it, what additional, substantial cleanup and repair costs have they personally undertaken if it was already brought into compliance?

The statement may be a little misleading in of the fact that at the time that the compliance was being obtained, though the applicant was working on the property and he was in the process of taking possession of it. He had also been submitting to have the fines reduced. He wasn't the legal owner at the time. The legal owner was Miguel Leon. The Ocal LLC property did not have proper title, therefore was not allowed to make the request, they continued to work towards gaining compliance. Once they gained in compliance and we got their legal paperwork straightened out, he then applied. The applicant applied. So

Okay.

To say at the time that the owner gained compliance is referring to this owner, El Cala LLC, not the prior owner Miguel Leon. Mister Leon is hospitalized. He's not able to do this work.

Okay. Understood. Thank you for that clarification.

Absolutely. Any other inquiries? Is the applicant here and desire to make any presentation to the board? And if so, please come forward. Okay. And is there anyone here from the public that desires to speak on this?

No, sir.

Okay. We'll close any public input. This is commissioner Konstantin's district. We'll go to the district commissioner.

Well, as much as I appreciate the fact that the current owner has continued to help put this into compliance, this is a piece of property that, my office had been getting calls on for at least three years and, has been a blown of contention in that entire neighborhood for quite a while. I do appreciate, like I said, that, they have, they have made attempts to abate the violations and and put them back into code. But I still believe that we should have some sort of fine since this was five years. So my recommendation and my motion is going to be that we reduce the fine to the $2,500 as a fine and the administrative cost of $1,204.40, making it a grand total of $3,704.40. And that is my motion.

Second.

Motion and second. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed, like signed? Carries unanimous. Thank you very much. Thank

you, mister.

Alright. We are going to work into our work sessions. Our next item is going to be the Code Enforcement Chapters forty, ninety five, 120, and 168 Work Session. Ms. Tricia Johnson and Mike Rhodes, our compliance coordinator, will give us a presentation. I would ask that we refrain from any questions until the presentation of each section. So after forty, we'll go to the board for any inquiries. Likewise, after 95, again, 120 and 168. I think that'll help us streamline that, if everybody's okay with that.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

May I proceed?

Please.

Okay. Thank you. Tricia Johnson, Deputy County Manager. And Mike, if you don't mind driving the remote, I'd appreciate it. So I know this commission has become very familiar with the opening slides of this presentation. I won't spend a lot of time on them, but of course our agenda. I'll cover a little background and key transition items. And then mister Rhodes will talk to you today about abatements, the proposed changes to various code sections, recommendations, and next steps. I do wanna mention one thing for clarification. Today, we will not be talking about chapter 40.

It was our original intent to talk about 40. However, there are a number of items related to the building division that need to be updated that are not related to code enforcement. So we're going to give our building team some time to take a look at that, and then we will be bringing that chapter back to the board. There's only a few minor things related to code enforcement in chapter 40. You know our background very well. We started this process in April 2024. And just a couple of highlights. In May, the commission adopted the International Property Maintenance Code. That was our first step into this journey of updating the code. And then in September, the commission adopted the chapter 53 ordinance.

Today, we are here to talk about chapters 95, one twenty, one sixty eight, and changes to the administrative code. You can also see all the other action items that the team has taken on over the past year and moved through the process. And our new code enforcement team actually started yesterday, so we are fully staffed. And mister Martin is working to get them acclimated. I think he even had a couple out in the field yesterday, so hit the ground running for sure.

Our next slide, we are, of course, in the process of our interim IT program setup. We will develop and deploy an easier to use public portal, which also your offices will certainly be able to use. Are ongoing internal case management process is being overhauled, and the new division officially launches on October 1. And with that, I will turn it over to mister Rhoads.

Alright. Good morning, mister chairman, and morning, commissioners. We're going to go over a number of changes today. And again, Tricia mentioned that we're not talking about chapter 40. The chapter 40 stuff, from our perspective in the code enforcement space, is fairly minor.

But again, just in the spirit of trying to kinda keep all the chapter stuff together, we opted to go ahead and hold off until the appropriate time. So we wanna talk today about, changes to the administrative code, chapter 95, chapter one twenty, and chapter one sixty eight. And all of those chapters kinda circle around things that we abate and how we handle that process. So that's what we're going to talk about primarily today. And the things we abate and, you know, especially kind of in light perhaps of the last reconsideration reduction case that you heard, Things that we abate include things like overgrown yards, rubbish, structural remains, junk cars, dilapidated houses, unsecured and unsafe pools.

And you have elements in your code of of, all of those things and abatement processes for all of those things. But regrettably, those things have, by and large, been having to come through you all through a sometimes inefficient process that, again, our intention today with some of these amendments that we're talking about is to to make a little bit more efficient. The idea of abatements in the county code actually goes back quite some time. You all adopted, in 1980, chapter one sixty eight, which established procedures for abatements and the assessment of related costs. And in those days, things were a little bit simpler, and it probably made made a lot of sense to have all of those abatements come through the Board of County Commissioners.

But in 2017,

the board

of county commissioners actually adopted changes to chapter 95 that in theory was going to have a lot of that abatement process go through your magistrate and your code enforcement board. Unfortunately, the execution hasn't quite been there, and so we are proposing changes today that, again, are gonna hopefully realign that and make that move a little bit more quickly. Again, just reflecting on those changes and those those code sections in chapter 95 and chapter one sixty eight, one of the other important things to talk about is, again, who you're putting that authority in the hands of. You know, you all have you're the ultimate decision makers no matter what, but when you made those changes to chapter 95, you actually authorized the development services director to be able to execute those abatements when it was appropriate and execute those as as an emergency matter. And so there were cases here and there of pools and other things that were were being taken care of, but there were a lot of other cases, as you all will will will recall, that were still coming back before you and still taking, in my view anyway, an inordinate amount of time in order to get get to a place where they could be resolved, under your authority and decision making.

At the same time, even in chapter one sixty eight, you contemplate emergency powers that would would authorize you to take action to abate hazards within Seminole County. I wanna take a quick detour and talk about the administrative code changes that we're proposing. And, again, some of these changes are kinda lining us up and realigning us with changes that have previously been made to chapter 95 and chapter 53. The first ones deal with, again, clarifying that lean reductions and lean waivers are to be handled by the special magistrate and code enforcement board. And then the and then that's section three point two zero and three point two one.

And then the other change I wanna talk about briefly, and I know there'll probably be some discussion about it, is the fine reduction costs that you you all have. You you impose a, a $500 fee for an application to reduce a fine and an additional $200 in the event the county manager, denies it and the property owner or the applicant wants to appeal it to the board of county commissioners. So you have a $700 barrier, and I'm gonna call it that. And I understand that there's, again, some reasonable discussion to be had about that. But you have a pretty significant barrier, particularly for owner occupied properties.

And owner occupied properties, you know, homestead properties, are are a pretty good number of your code enforcement cases overall. And so while I'm not suggesting that the county's cost shouldn't be recovered, what I will suggest to you is that the application fee, again, represents a barrier. And in the event the the board or the magistrate decide to reduce those fines, they can recover some of those county costs as you as you currently do now and in in some respects as you as you did today in the in the case that you just heard. So my proposal to you is that you eliminate that fee. I understand there's gonna be some discussion about that, and I I completely understand it.

So we'll leave it there and come back to it at the appropriate time. The change that we're proposing to chapter 95 involve, again, just kinda clean up stuff, deleting references to obsolete code, putting the county manager again in in his role as the the the the manager of the staff and designated code enforcement officers. It also goes to specifying the process for abatements for overgrown and trashy yards, And we set forth the process whereby we we do that. We establish the notice provisions. We establish the the time frame from correction, the opportunity for appeal of those decisions, and then finally, the abatement and ultimately invoicing and liens and collection of of the county's costs of recovering the cost for for doing those abatements.

Chapter one twenty deals with, it's actually titled junk and junk dealers. We're proposing, I think, to change the title of that to junk cars or or or junk vehicles. And we've had an opportunity to discuss it with you, but at the end of the day, you have a lot of junk cars around Seminole County, and we have a lot of cases involving junk cars, but we do not abate junk cars. And so the the amendments that we're proposing to chapter one twenty would set forth a process, again, whereby we post notice on on the junk cars. We give property owners, car owners, the opportunity to remove the junk cars or put them into an operable condition.

And in the event they fail to do that, then we're proposing to go ahead and remove those those junk cars through a towing contract, again, with the towing contractor, recovering the cost from the property owner and or the vehicle owner in the event they want the vehicle back. But the more important thing is here, we feel it's important to get these cars out of here, get them abated, get them off the property. They represent a blighting influence. In a lot of cases, there's criminal activity associated with those those junk vehicles that we don't need to get into the the gory details on right now, but, we wanna have an opportunity and and a mechanism whereby those things can be removed. Chapter one sixty eight changes, again, we have some conforming amendments that that kind of fit with chapter 53 and chapter 95.

We kind of more clearly establish with the the changes they're proposing in chapter one sixty eight. We clearly established that the board and or the magistrate will handle the appeals for nuisance determinations. Technically, in in a lot of cases, that has been that has been before you all, and we just don't feel like that's a good use of your time and and it's not as timely as as we we think we would like for

it to

be. And then finally, and and probably most importantly, we authorize the code enforcement manager to be responsible for abating those nuisance conditions. And so, you know, the the the the line of authority is clear here, and the person that you wanna look at when those abatements aren't getting done is gonna be clear. And that's really the purpose behind those 168 changes. The recommendations and next steps, again, we know there's probably going be some discussion on some of these items, and so we want to give you an opportunity to ask whatever questions you might have and and have the appropriate discussion, and then bring back for you, ordinances that we can, again, appropriately advertise and then bring to the Board of County Commissioners, ideally on October 28.

We do have some additional work to do on the abatements. We need to get contracts in place to be able to handle securing property, mowing property, towing cars, and all those things. And so that's work that John has already undertaken and beginning to move forward on. We have our additional changes to to chapter 40 that we discussed. And and again, we're looking forward to kind of getting getting the vision off to a a running start October 1.

I can't tell you, I'm I'm told, I haven't had a chance to look at it, but I'm told the website is kind of up and running and ready to take your complaints and your constituents' complaints. We don't have the sophisticated, back end database that we we want yet, but that is underway with, with the contract with Excel that you all have authorized. And we hope to have that up and running in the spring along with a lot of the other reporting capabilities that we know that you expect to come out of that process. So with that, I'll stop and take your questions.

Very good. Thank you, mister Rhodes. Let's start with chapter 95. Anybody have any inquiries from the board on 95?

Well, don't have the numbers memorized. Tell me which what that's up. Tell me which part that compromises. Health, property, maintenance. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. That's health, property, maintenance, and sanitation.

So I would I I think we ought to go ahead and have the conversation about the application for abatements. I think, you know, there's probably a sweet spot between nothing and $700. I don't know what that is, but I I have had constituents that have been able to bring their property into compliance not because of work that they have done, but because of work that volunteers have done, and then they don't have the money to apply. And then they're collecting money from church and neighbors and family members to try to cobble together the funds. So I think there's something to be said for there being some flexibility there if possible.

I don't I don't know legally how much flexibility there can be among applicants. The idea of a refund is lovely if you had the money to begin with. But if you don't have the money to pay, then it really doesn't matter if it can be refunded to you. So but I I don't have a fixed thought on this other than I see very much the need to reduce it. I don't know if it should be zero. That's where I'm at right now. Chairman?

Commissioner Her.

I think we need to reverse engineer it. I don't want it to be zero for the folks that are coming in, and doing battle over property that's not been brought up to code, and we've seen that over and over again. And at the same time, I don't want somebody to be harmed because they can't bring it in and then it rolls up to be a problem. So I think the reverse engineering is gets attached at the end of the hearing, and if the hearing is to clear the book and say, yes, it's brought up to code and there's no fee to be here, then that's great. If it was not, then there's a fee associated with the time spent for that event.

So I don't want to start my briefing, I was adamant about the fact that I don't want to be hiring magistrates for frivolous hearings because this will become an activity for some folks, And the only way to do that is to attach some skin in the game for the folks that are appearing. But I think if we reverse engineer it, we've accomplished the goal.

So my I also am not a zero sum proponent. What I would like to to see, and I don't know if and I'll I'll ask the county attorneys this question, if this is where such an idea should go as in the admin code or somewhere else, which is to the point that we have individuals that have fallen apart hard times where they've lost a spouse or they're incapable financially, maybe they've lost their job. I mean, the reality is we're not in the penalty business, but we do have a duty to make sure our communities are safe, kept clean, and so forth. I would like to see some kind of fee schedule that's reinvested into a fund that then could be used to help some of these people that have fallen upon hard times to mow their grass or do something to help them along, whether it's through a nonprofit that we would work with or some other vehicle would be what I would like to see. Again, we're not looking to penalize people unnecessarily, but we do have to get compliance.

We're not in the business of taking their property and leaning it for twenty years like it's been in the past. And so if we really truly want to help the community, in my opinion, we should develop some kind of fund that's funded by the fees that would allow us to help those people that have fallen upon hard times or or found themselves in a bad in situation. That's my 2¢ worth as far as that goes. So I'm not sure where that would go, it's admin code or somewhere else.

I would imagine it would go in the admin code. It can go in the code, It can go in the admin code. It would be a policy decision for the board and I've already heard more than one good idea on how to structure a program like that. The legal limitation is that we don't want to impose a fee that's arbitrary or that gives staff any sort of discretion to charge one person one fee another person another fee, but you know a sliding scale based on income or the amount of the lien. Don't know.

Right.

You know there's a lot of different ways that we could structure it. So you know I think it would be a good exercise for staff to brainstorm something and bring something back if that's the direction of the board.

Sure. No. I'm okay with that. Anything else? Commissioner

Constantine? Well, for you not wanting to bring another idea into it since we've already had three. But I I I don't I think that the the reverse engineering has merit. I I think that what you've said, commissioner Zimbauer, has merit also. I do believe that there needs to be a minimum charge from the beginning, though.

I don't think that we need to I mean, we can evaluate it in the end. We can see how much of whatever needs to go to whatever, you know, community trust, if you wanna call it that, based upon the person's hardship. But I don't want it to become and I think one of you said it, and I don't remember which, this become a game in which every single time or or, you know, okay. Let's see how we can play this out, and we'll just let it go on and on and on. And then we'll ask for a reduction in the end, and we don't have to pay for that.

So we can just, you know, do it. And and I don't wanna use what we just did today because I think that they honestly tried to fix up the home, and I believe that the other gentleman, sir, you're the brother of the individual that originally owned the home, if I'm not mistaken. But, you know, I mean, that took five years, and we need to we need to make sure that there that we don't have a a, you know, a a a lingering, if you will, of not having to, you know, come into compliance. So having an early fee, doing some sort of, you know, it does sound like an exercise for the staff, but having a fee, doing some, you know, reverse engineering, and also looking into the possibility of a, I'll call, community trust. I think all of them are viable ideas that need to be considered.

Mister chairman? Commissioner Delari. Thank you. I would agree with all the statements that are made here today. There needs to be a minor fee for that applicant. So there is a little bit of skin in the game. And if it gets forgiven at the end or it gets repaid at the end, it's a totally different issue. And I think asking staff to bring us back some ideas are all worth sound ideas. And I'm looking forward to hearing what staff has to say when they bring it back.

Mister chairman, one last thing.

Mister Costello

don't want to I I want to reiterate what a wonderful idea it is to get it off of this dais and into the hands of the staff. I don't nothing that I'm saying today or hopefully anybody else is saying, you know, wants us to have it unless it's absolutely necessary.

I think we all agree on that. So I do believe that we do need to recover the taxpayers' costs. We have that obligation to our taxpayers and our constituents to recover the fees that are being expended to go through the whole process. But likewise, and I think what commissioner Konstantin is saying is correct, we want to make sure everyone is treated equally under the law. And if that ends up being some sliding scale based on the ability or financial status, then I will look to the county attorneys to tell us what that is.

So it sounds like if there's no one else, it looks like we've got pretty good direction.

The last thing that I would add, Chairman, is that thank goodness for the abatement process on junk cars. I would only expect that to grow over time as we figure out there are other things we're not abating because it's not just cars. So I did leave that open the door open of we need to be thinking about this on a grander scale.

Yeah. Exactly. I I wanna take a moment and thank staff, thank our attorney's office. I know you all have been working very diligently and hard on this, and this has been a topic that many of us have struggled with for multiple years and for some time. So it's it's very nice to know that you guys have got us to a place where we're headed in the right direction.

And I would suspect that we may have to revisit some of this in a year or two if we see some speed bumps or some issues and we'll deal with it as those come up. So thank you all very much for bringing this to us and spending the time that was necessary. And welcome all the new staff in code enforcement. We hope that you find Seminole County a great place to, have employment. Thank you very much.

Alright. Thank you.

Did we cover all things that you needed to be

done for?

I think so. I think that's the only thing we really have a concern

Just making sure. It sounds the precursor was like, we

know you guys are gonna have to shop talk this quarter.

That just seems so smoothly.

Well, it sounds like we all had good briefings.

Keep it moving.

You very much.

Okay. Thanks.

And and you all do believe you got direction. Correct?

Yes. Probably yesterday, I

hope. Great.

Thank you.

Alright. Next up, we are going to hear for the state of animal services, mister Alan Harris.

Good morning. Good morning, commissioners. For the record, Alan Harris, director of emergency management today. Real excited to talk to you about the animal services division. Brought some lovely people with me today.

I'd like to introduce, Chris Tranco, our new division manager, has already done some amazing things at animal services. Brie Burkett, our shelter manager, she'll be talking to a little bit a bit about some shelter operations today. Lauren Watts, our field services, manager, which oversees, the animal control portion of, of Seminole County Animal Services. And I also have Albert Adams with us. He does our special projects.

He's a manager of our special projects. So all the exciting things that you see on social media and SGTV and things like that, Most all of it, he is managing and coordinating. Today, we're gonna go over, some of the, items that we have here at animal services, adoptions, volunteerism, our partnerships that we have, animal control field operations, and other various programs. At the very end, I'm gonna come back up and talk about some future opportunities, also some capital improvement plans, that we have over the next three to five years. I'm super excited about look at that.

Look at that smile. We were the first department, so I'm excited about that. And thanks to Joe and his team at IT for doing that. But we were the first public facing dashboard. I know here in Seminole County, believe in transparency. We're so transparent. I won't continue that because I know what we said about transparency the last time. But we're very transparent at animal services. We do have clothes on, but we are transparent. So, you can, log on to our website, get all types of statistics.

You can click on those statistics and even get more data. So this is one of our hottest hit web pages other than adopting cats and dogs, which is really cool. It's really been wonderful for our residents to see what's going on in a snapshot at animal services. We wouldn't be able to do what we do without our wonderful partners. I can't call out all

of them.

We have public and private partners, certainly our residents, as our partners as well. But I do wanna call out a couple, if I can. Tiers up in the upper right hand corner. Tiers is our like our friends at the library. So they do a lot of, services for us, specialized, medications, specialized surgeries in some cases. There are outreach to Petco and and, those types of facilities, so they actually manage the cats that are in those locations. So they do a lot of great work for us. Underneath them, Pet Alliance. Of course, we all know Pet Alliance. They're across the street from us.

They pull a lot of, animals from us. They are a wonderful resource for us. They've helped us in the past when we didn't have a vet in doing some of our spays and neuters, which has been wonderful. And then I know it's very odd for private. You would, of course, notice the Chewy and the the Petco and the PetSmart and things like that. But Stanley Steamer what is Stanley Steamer in there for? Stanley Steamer provides a lot of funding for our Paws and Claws, which you're gonna hear about in a little bit. They also do our Pet of the Week, on TV, so they fund that for us. And, those pets, of course, get a lot of notoriety, a lot of TV viewing, and many of those get adopted. So we certainly thank Stanley Steemer.

Our shelter operations, of course, is a twenty four hour, seven day a week operation, holidays, weekends. All dogs and cats and and ferrets and rabbits and pigs and all the other animals that we get birds, are fed twice a day, cleaned, their crates, their cat cages, their runs. We have a new dog enrichment program, which has been really helpful in helping us adopt animals called dogs playing for life, where dogs are put into play groups, and they go out, and they they interact with each other, which is very helpful when you're trying to adopt a dog and there's other dogs in that individual's home. We can say, yes, this dog interacts very well and also socializes the animal and also calms them down in the shelter. If you can imagine, some of our our occupants have been with us for months and months, and being in a run without that kind of stimulation can be quite challenging.

Now I turn it over to mister Strunko.

Hello, everybody. Morning.

Special events. We're averaging 14 special events a month, which is a significant increase from last year. They range from everything from our monthly vaccine clinics to our signature event, being pause and clause in December and our public safety signature events. Oh, boy. The right button.

Sorry. Our veterinary operations, range from everything from spay and neuter, all the way to forensic reports for animal cruelty investigations. Just a note, those are those are definitely on the increase, right now, through our law enforcement partners. We we treat sick animals, rabies vaccinations, and even offer end of life services to the, the general public. Finally, that brings me to our TNVR, program started in 2022.

It has, created a significant decrease in the feral cat population in Seminole County and continues to decrease that. All the facets of it, as you can see on the screen, but another interesting note, we've started a a barn cat warehouse cat type program, which kind of fills a gap between TNVR and adopt able cats. So if anybody has a barn or warehouse that needs a cat to control the situation, please let us know. I'll turn it over.

And of course,

one of our main goals at the shelter is, of course, adoptions. We have strived to be a no kill shelter since 2016, not having to euthanize for space, breed, capacity or length of stay. We strive to find placement for them through our pathway planning, so those are animals that come in over the counter as owner surrenders, strays, protective custody cases, whether they have an owner in the hospital or unfortunately incarcerated, they do come in that way as well. So we've have meetings where we plan their outcomes, whether we seek rescues, their adoption candidates, things of that nature. As well as our special programs, we have quite a few programs, for our senior citizens, where senior citizens in the community can adopt senior animals six years old older, for a heavily discounted fee, as well as Pets for Patriots, where we strive to find animals for veterans.

And we work with, like, another organization where they have quite a few benefits, whether it's discounted veterinary fees, medications, things of that nature. Excuse me. We also have service animals, where upon request, we can help place service animals with new owners as well as trying to find, excuse me, as well as trying to find trainers to help train them for service animal needs. And, of course, our partnerships with rescues such as Tears Pet Alliance, they help find us placement with those animals. Volunteer management, we have a great volunteer program, which we are constantly growing.

These are volunteers that can help in and out of the shelter, whether it's specifically with animals or just off-site stuff such as foster homes. We rely greatly upon our foster homes, so we are always looking for new ones, if anyone is interested. We also have our Bright Futures program, where high school students aged 16 and 18 can foster animals in their homes with their parental consent, where they gain one hundred community service hours for them. And, of course, donations. Donations is a huge part of our shelter.

We greatly appreciate and, use them for quite a few things. We get gently used items, or new items from community members. We where we place them back out into our boutique where we can get monetary donations that help fund quite a few projects at the shelter, which is our free roam catio area, which is a huge project we've done. Cats have great space outside where they can get some fresh air. Our livestock barn, and of course, dog enrichment equipment, as well as our adoption trailer, which has made off-site adoptions much easier.

Our dog play yards, where we've gained more shelters, play equipment, meet and greet yards, where we've gotten AstroTurf and great seating areas for customers. And of course, those donations help to fund specialized surgeries and medical equipment such as our x-ray machine. I'll pass this over to Lauren.

Good morning.

Morning.

So when it comes to field services, as you can see, not all of chapter 20 is listed up there. But ordinances such as our anti hoarding ordinance, our puppy bill ordinance, and our aggressive dog ordinance are extremely instrumental in keeping our public safe and animal welfare our priority. I speak for animal services when I say thank you to the commissioners for passing those in particular. We also have our standards of care ordinance, which we inspect commercial type boarding facilities to make sure they meet the county guidelines. These ordinance that ordinance also includes the citizens who are over the animal limit here in Seminole County, and then we have, our animal cruelty and bite investigations as well.

Field services, as a brief description, we're a twenty four seven operation. We handle about 13 to 1,400 calls for service, in a month. And we do that with about eight animal control officers. Those calls for service can be a variety of things from stray domestic animals to lost livestock or exotics, sick or injured wildlife, and then obviously our criminal investigations that we work in partnership with law enforcement. Back again.

Aren't they lovely?

Yes. I am blessed.

I am really blessed with the leadership team

over at animal services. So in field operations, of course, we always respond to injured animals. That is a priority call for us. For and your offices often get calls for deceased animals. I wanna talk a little bit about deceased animals now because those, do come in.

For protected animals that are deceased on roadways and things like that, that is the, jurisdiction of the Florida Wildlife Commission. So unless there's a reason that the Florida Wildlife Commission contacts us and says we can't make it, please go help that, then that's the only time that we would respond to a deceased bear, bald eagle, things like that. Of course, again, injured animals, I think I've responded we've responded to just about every one of your houses for an injured animal as well as most houses in Seminole County. So it happens all the time. Unfortunately, somewhere in our neighborhoods, we find an animal, right, that is injured.

For deceased domestic animals, we go out and, of course, pick up any cat, dog. We scan it for a microchip, then we make notification, next of kin, if you will, a notification to the family if we find an animal that is deceased, this domestic animal. Deceased livestock, equine, and those types, llamas, other types of exotic type animals, yes, we have those here in Seminole County. We work with the Seminole County Sheriff's Office Range and Water to collect those animals and then work with our solid waste department landfill, as well as the owner of those particular, equine livestock, etcetera. For deceased medium and large animals, we do respond to those.

Those are bears, panthers, coyotes, boars, things like that to pick them up. One staff recommendation is a change, and that is for smaller animals. We get calls about dead squirrels, often, to pick them up on roadways, and we do respond to that. Our recommendation is that we stop doing that and explain how they can get rid of those themselves. So that is a change that, is a recommendation.

It takes a lot, to respond to a dead squirrel or a dead rat or a dead duck. And if you can imagine, of course, with 500,000 plus people now converse in Seminole County on a given day, there are a lot of squirrels that run-in front of cars, that we have to pick up. We've been looking at, of course, capital improvement for a while. This is our, one to five year capital improvement, project. We wanted to put this, of course, on your radar.

Our shelter operates at 130% capacity. I think there's no surprise there. I think you all know that that occurs regularly. It's also on our dashboard, that I just showed you. We are in need of some renovations of surgical equipment at around about 100 ks on our capital improvement plan, so that's about two to three years out.

Some of these have been deferred a couple of times, but in about the next two to three years, we would be looking at that. Another item is kennel gates. So we are looking to replace all of our kennel gates. Those are the run gates that are in our facility, as you can imagine. After years of water and cleaning solutions and things like that, those start to to get hard to move, and the locking mechanisms start to mess up.

Our building doors, jams, all those also are in need replacement. The last time that we did a full or any really large refurbishment of, the shelter was February 2007, when we had our fire. So that's it's it's been a while. Some of those, these things need to be updated. Our behavioral areas, need to be upgraded as well. They are old. Over time, you know, with rain and sun and being beat down for so long, those are in need of replacement. Our fences and gates have also not been replaced in a long time, to replace all of those, and I had to phone a friend. So Chad with facilities helped me out. Thank you, Chad.

That's at about two hundred and three thousand dollars to replace all the fence and gates and make those right around the the shelter. We do not have HVAC. So you know that we've put temporary HVAC up for our, animal shelter. That's, of course, for the dogs and and cats as well as the employees that have to work in those facilities every day. The fans and the air movement inside of there other than the HVAC system also needs to be replaced.

We're gonna call it building envelope, although the renovation of the roofing area is something that needs to be done. Our entire painting of our campus needs to be done, as well as the update of our adoption and administrative building also has to be updated.

And if I could just chime in on here, because I told Alan, was like, I don't wanna miss this opportunity when we discussed this.

We talked last night.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. So

people I I I know you all understand this, but animal services is part of our public safety program. And so that is something that we're really focusing on, that we will be focusing on a lot over this next year. What I've asked Alan and his team to do is start working on a five year capital plan for okay. We know there's a lot of needs in animal services. I asked him to do this. That's why I wanted to do this presentation. We wanted actually to do that over the summer during the budget work sessions. It just didn't, work out. So I wanted to ensure and just so you all have the confidence is that we are looking at this, and I wanna look. Okay.

Where are we at right now as in our as the the state of animal services? Where are we going to go in the in the future? As he had mentioned, the shelter operates at overcapacity of a 130%. We actually use another boarding facility because we do not, you know, want to put animals down. So that is a cost that it continues to rise in our budget.

We have shown you a lot of the the issues over the the last couple months during our budget work sessions that are increasing the cost over inflation. I know a lot of people like to talk about inflation. These are costs that are continuing to to hit us. So we're gonna have a couple more sessions with the board over the next six months on how we're going to get animal services where they need to be over the next couple of years. And that, at the October, I'll be coming back to you with a work session on the fourth generation sales tax.

Other than transportation, you know, we're working on a mobility plan now, the 2,050 mobility plan. That will be coming to you in the spring. However, there are projects that I need to bring to you that were discussed and on our list for the Fortune sales tax that I need direction on from the board. Animal services is on there as well. So we are working on this. I wanted Alan just to show you that we are looking at it, but we are actually putting a plan that will it happen tomorrow? No. But it will happen over the next three to five years.

Got it. Yeah. My inquiry was it was interesting how you couched this as future opportunities. It looks like to me that it's future needs and it sounds like it's more immediate than it is future, especially some of those items. Past.

And so I'm glad we're hearing this, but I would have liked to honestly heard this before we got into our budget season. We all cherish our animals and for the life of me, don't know why we could not have air conditioning for not only the volunteers and workers, but the pets themselves knowing it has how hot it gets here in the winter or summer. So that's my 2¢ worth on that. I'll start with Commissioner Her and work our way down. Commissioner?

I can't believe anybody calls you to pick a squirrel up off the road. And what would the middle schoolers put in the mailboxes?

Well, thank you.

I may or may not have known that to have happened in my neighborhood by kids that I may or may not know. Some I don't know what the right answer here is. Something that takes a very long time to be absorbed by nature probably needs to be picked up. A squirrel does not need to be picked up. That's gone in two days.

Nature planned for that. I I do think one one of my pet peeves is I don't I think there's gotta be a better way to deal with the the situation that I faced with the deer in the yard that was critically injured. We knew we had to put it down, but animal control had to come out, look at it, and then call the sheriff to come out. And there ought to be an electronic way to do that. Like, can I take a picture of the deer's bones being sticking out of its body, send it to you, and then just dispatch the sheriff?

So that process, I think there's an opportunity there. I would ask the question that doesn't have to be answered today, as I thought you were very gracious in giving us credit for the ordinances, but I can't imagine that we nailed it. I bet you there's opportunity for improvement. She is doing a really good job at trying to keep a poker's face, but you're not you're as good at it as I am. So there's clearly opportunity there. We need to know about that because we just think it's all wonderful if we're not hearing. And I suspect, given the comment that there's issues that are cropping up and it's growing in terms of animal abuse and neglect, we maybe need to to be looking at that again. So please feel free to bring that back.

Okay.

With regard to future opportunities, I think I think you did mention this during the budget session, just not as detailed as maybe, but we need to figure out how to get this in play and what's the order of operation. We can't have employees in those conditions. We all know that. And we're now is the time to address these things. We need to get it in get the plan, build it and actually follow it and not kick the can down the road on renovations for, I think, number was twenty four years, if I did math.

Commissioner Glory. Thank you, mister chairman. Allen, I've said this to many times, you and your staff and the people below your staff do a phenomenal job. We hear about it on a regular basis, so you have a lot to be complimented about. You said that you're blessed. The community is blessed to have the people that work for you all that take care of these animals on a day to day basis. We've all been in the your facilities. And yes, things do need to happen. Things need to change. I know the county manager talked about a CIP.

I look at that as a master plan with a CIP. And hopefully, we can see that come forward. And I do remember that one night in February eighteen years ago. That was horrific. And not just county not just your staff, but the firefighters did a phenomenal job at that point.

And, yeah, there was a couple of animals that were lost, unfortunately. And that's the reason why I think it's important for us not just to have a CIP, but a true master plan. I'd also like to see a heat map of where your services are so we can better understand that. And I look forward to actually doing something and making some changes, not just in the physical capital side, but in the code side. If there's changes that need to be done administratively on our side, please let us know. We rely on you and your staff a lot and so does the citizens, and more importantly, the animals do. So thank you, Alan, for all your help and guidance. Yeah.

Commissioner Konsteen. Thank you. Congratulations

again. Phenomenal changes over the years. I mean, I remember when we first came here, I said, so where's our fucking mill ordinance? And we didn't have one. And so you you all have made a great deal of strides in the last number of years, and I'm very impressed.

You know, I I didn't read even a word in here, but I get it all the time. Maybe it's in you know, because it's in urban areas now, but, do you have any comments on the proliferation of coyotes? Yeah.

We we actually just did a educational campaign related to that because we did have, some sightings as well as we had a few individuals that reported, loss of life of their pet because of coyotes. So we did educational post it's really under the jurisdiction of Florida Wildlife Commission, but working with the Florida Wildlife Commission, we provided some education. I want to thank the Office communications. I'm sure they're here right now. But, for doing that, we've been produce producing, some some, public outreach, public safety messages for individuals, as well as those particular areas.

We've encouraged yard signs and things like that to better educate, the neighborhoods.

So and I've seen those yard signs Yeah. In in in very densely populated areas. Yes. So I guess my question is, is that the strategy? Is there other strategies that we can use to maybe reduce

the number of Wildlife Commission strategy is they call it harassment, but to scare the coyotes away. Most of the coyotes will run from you. We already do the bear trash cans in many places, so we're already doing that particular education. Food that is left outside, of course, is an attraction. So food that's left out for community cats and things like that, we're encouraging community cat folks that you need to bring that food in at night because otherwise, you're encouraging the coyotes to come towards the community cat colonies.

So those are things that people need to to think about. You don't want food outside that encourages them to come. All this, of course, is included in the FWC, website. FWC also has a map, and you can actually pull up Seminole County and see where the sightings have been and where the attacks have been. So, it's quite something if you wanna take a look at that map. It's it's very educational.

And anybody that has, like, an empty lot like I do next to me that doesn't get mowed all the time and also has a certain individual that likes to feed stray cats near there. I was sitting on my deck, just to give an example, the other day, and there was a coyote that just walked by the sand beach and and looked at me, kinda smiled, dinner dinner business, and then then just jumped over the fence. And so, you know, they are was, like, shocked to see one, but that's You don't think she

was giving you a message?

That's because y'all got city coyotes. We don't have that problem out

there.

Yeah. We got we got city coyotes. That's right.

Answer the tags.

Okay. This is gonna be a strange question, but we I I I it's it's done in sincerity. Since our urban chicken program has been so popular, have we ever had chickens brought for adoption or brought to be left?

We occasionally get chickens, but not often. Not often at all.

Okay. Yeah.

And what do we do with them other than, you know, make fried chicken? Love fried chicken.

Lee's famous fried chicken. So we have gotten I I was asked in 2016 to to help manage, animal services, I think I've seen just about every animal, come through, large turtles, rabbits. Unfortunately, Tricia gets a picture of the crazy ones every time we get one in because I just want her to know it's there. But, we get goats. Darren gets a lot of pictures too. Sorry. Everything. So, yes, we do get chickens from time to time. Most of those we can adopt adopt out. You go. You go. Go. There

go. There go.

Conversation, as someone who lost a cat to a coyote, I will tell you the coyotes aren't looking for the food, they're looking for the cats that are eating the food. It requires people behavior change and quite honestly not letting your cats be out at night, which a lot of people do. It's kind of like the, you know, the that's you know, if there's an attractant there, they will they will find them. I live between I 4 and the 417, which is pretty urban core of our community, and we have a bunch of coyotes in our neighborhood. And people post in the neighborhood Facebook group, my cat is missing.

And and, you know, the hard hearted Harriots of the group will say, well, it probably got a coyote. Right? And so don't don't be looking for it. The coyote's probably got it. Unfortunately, that's just kinda become the norm. But, yeah, f w FWC has done some wonderful work. I wanna thank you and your team for sticking out with us the last year or so, prior to new management. I know we had a blip, and, it was it was tough on everybody. And so thank you to everyone who endured through that time. I think we're in a much, much better place, and and I'm grateful for the leadership of the county manager and the rest of your team for for being able to see through what we needed to see through there.

That was very I'm very, very grateful. I think that from an ordinance perspective where I think we may have opportunity, and I will rely on you all to to tell me if it is or not, is to with the hoarding and the poor treatment of animals, maybe we are allowing too many strikes. You know, instead of a three strikes, you're out, and I don't know how many it is. It's a lot more than three. Maybe within the bounds of the of the Florida law, if we can tighten that up a little bit so that neighbors aren't enduring all of the odors and the barking and the negative impacts of people who just are not good animal owners.

If we can tighten that up, I think that's something I would love to look at. As far as the capital needs, you know, it's funny. I stopped looking at social media not long ago, for a variety of reasons. But one is because I just get so frustrated reading all of the comments that are completely examples of of ignorance of the process and things that we provide in in in local government. And so but I still have friends who feel like I need to see these things, so they screenshot them and send them to me.

And because if I see it, I'm going to want to respond, and then I shouldn't, and it becomes a situation. I try not to respond. But one of the comments was, and I think it was actually based on, it was because of the clerk's open checkbook that people were seeing the expenditures for things like a veterinarian. And why would why in the world are we or were the taxpayers paying for for a veterinarian? This is why we pay for a veterinarian.

And without context, of course, expenses are sometimes misinterpreted for sure. So the nice thing about animal services is people have a heart for animals. And we could get people to donate out of their as we know, because you have so many partners already, for some of these things where it you know, it's hard to get people to donate to the jail. Right? The jail has all of these same kinds of needs with doors and equipment and what have you, but no one really has has that much of a heart to help donate to the jail.

I think if we were to talk about, a matching grant program of some sort or something where we could encourage folks and businesses in the community to help sponsor some of these things, put their naming rights opportunities. We have that in our code already, that availability. That might be an opportunity to help take some of the burden directly from from our coffers. Excellent, excellent job.

Thank you.

Yeah. But just I agree with the chairman. Don't don't wait to tell us, and I'm I'm thrilled that we the three to five year plan is great, but we have deferred maintenance for your operation and others in this community for many, many, many years. And partially because we have been such an incredibly conservative board, we have said year after year, unless it is absolutely necessary for the operation of the primary function of local government, we're not spending it. And and that's where we are right now with the place of needing to we're at the we're at the we're beyond the tipping point, for your organization, for sure. So thank you for painting the whole picture for us.

Yeah. And if I could just comment on your your veterinarian, I saw similar messaging. And we are, by statute, required to adopt animals that are spayed and neutered. So if we don't do it ourselves, then we have to go get a vet to do it. I don't know if anyone's been to the vet recently Okay. But our commercial vet if we were to do that for all 250 plus animals we currently have in the shelter. So the amount of savings, that's what we should be talking about, not the cost of the vet. We should be talking about the savings that we have by not going to a private vet and paying an exorbitant cost for that.

Yeah. Wonderful. Thank you.

I'm not gonna echo and mirror what's already been said. Good work. You all are doing tremendous work, obviously, with very little. And I think what you're hearing from this board, it is important to us that these things be funded and properly funded, and we need to

do that sooner rather than

later, in my opinion. There's certainly been opportunities that maybe have passed us up that we've funded other things that maybe this should have been a little bit ahead of the game on this. As far as picking up dead animals, I am no proponent of picking up dead animals unless they're causing a hazard to the traveling public. Like I think commissioner Her indicated, it is the cycle of life. You know, the turkey buzzards, which were at one time endangered, they feed on these carcasses on the side of the road.

So as far as extended cost to go around and pick up all these animals, unless it's a farm animal or a horse or a cow that's laying in the middle of the intersection, I mean, my my district, any given day, you can drive around and see half a dozen dead deer on the side of the road or raccoons or what I mean, it just it happens. And typically, in twenty four, forty eight hours, there's not much left. You'll see the buzzards on them for, you know, a period of time, and then we go on. And I realize that that sometimes is difficult for those that don't live in the rural area, may not want to see that. So I think how we strike a happy medium there.

But my my belief is if it's not causing a public safety hazard, I don't see any reason why we should go out and and have to remove that. So anyway

Mister chairman?

Anything else? Yes. Commissioner Lockhart?

There I think you pointed out a very important nuance is that a dead deer on the side of the road in Geneva in the grass where there are no sidewalks is very different than a dead deer on the side of Markham Woods Road where children are walking to Heathrow Elementary School.

Sure.

And so there there may be, you know, some need for flexibility there. I I did have a question about the 30 pounds. Do you wanna are we talking raccoons, possums, armadillos? Like, is that 30 pounds? Yes. Okay. How how much does a raccoon weigh? I don't know. There are skinny ones. There are fat ones.

Anything under anything under, like, a raccoon, a possum, armadillo, duck, and squirrel is what we're talking about mostly. Alright. I Deers, of course, we're gonna go pick up a deer. It's large. It's boars, bobcats. Any those are all above 30.

Okay.

Any domestic animal, doesn't matter what the size is. We're gonna go pick it up. Okay. And any livestock or equine, we're gonna go pick it up.

Okay. Fantastic.

We're gonna locate the owner too so

we know

what it is.

Alright. Awesome. Thank you for that clarification.

My district has trouble sometimes keeping cows and and and horses contained out And emus. Emus. Yeah. Did we ever

find the emu? We did find the emu. He's back. She is back with her family.

Because I saw a news feed

There is a Facebook page if you'd like to follow her.

President: I got a news feed that somebody saw an emu running wild in, like, South Carolina. I'm like, did

it make it that far?

Wow. Very good. Anything else for Animal Services? Well, good work. We sincerely appreciate it. Thank you all very much. Anything else, Mr. County Manager, before we adjourn to the afternoon session?

No, Well, just one thing that we do have scout vehicles out in the parking lot, so those of you who did not get to see those and go inside and, you know, just peruse through it, they're out here for us. They'll be leaving right after lunch, so if you have an opportunity in for the public, they're out in the parking lot.

Thank you very

much.

We'll be adjourned till 01:30. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. It's 01:30, and we are resuming the Board of County Commission meeting here in Seminole County. Date is 09/23/2025. I want to take a moment and wish Kate a happy birthday.

Whoo. Happy birthday. Thank you.

And Commissioner Her has a birthday this week. Congratulations. Yay. Happy birthday.

Go ahead. Yeah. Want to report that. Every year's a gift. That's my report.

And today is also, believe it or not, we we saw the animal services earlier. Today is dogs and politics day. If I'd have known that early in

the Dogs in politics?

Yeah. I'm not sure what that means, but I thought about bringing my dog.

That used to have dogs.

Anyway, I'll look for proofs of publication, please. So moved. Second. Motion is second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed, like sign. Seeing none, carries unanimous. Okay. Our first item and only item this afternoon is gonna be legislative in nature. It's item 22, comprehensive plan amendment transmittal, and this will be presented by David Germann.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

David German, senior planner development services. This afternoon, I'm presenting a proposed Texas amendment to the Seminole County comprehensive plan. It will amend the introduction, transportation, public schools facilities, intergovernmental coordination, and capital improvement elements in the capital improvements exhibit. This will implement the 2021 school interlocal agreement for public school facility planning and school concurrency, expand options for transportation services, and to provide a definition for micro transit. The 2021 school interlocal agreement was formally adopted on 12/09/2024 with the deadline to adopt the updated language into the comprehensive plan by 10/09/2025.

These updates include language for definitions, updated level of service and facility standards, and adoption of the Seminole School Board's five year capital improvements plan into the county's capital improvements element. This was done by reference to the school district's budget book, which houses their capital improvement plan. The amendments to the comprehensive plan related to the school ILA are intended to create consistency and be compliant with the agreement. The 2007 interlocal agreement was replaced by the 2021 agreement with an effective date of 12/09/2024. The agreement has a date of 2021 in the title, but an effective date of December 2024.

Seminole County has signed the agreement in collaboration with the school district early on, but the agreement did not become effective until all municipalities had signed it, which occurred in 2024 as some cities had not signed it until later on.

Actually, one city.

Yeah. We're all thinking. Yeah.

It was one city. It was fun. That city was Winter Springs. That's correct. My district.

We're just we're just calling them out. Right?

That's right.

Alright. Just be forthright and open.

Big bus just rolled over them.

Other updates in this amendment are due to the expansion of the transportation system in Seminole County. SCOUT is a new microtransit system which requires the comprehensive plan to incorporate new language and definitions. This includes a definition of microtransit in the introduction element and language to specify funding sources in the transportation element. There was also a minor correction to the transportation element deleting a reference to an unadopted plan. These changes are consistent with the plan that the county has voted to implement for the micro transit system and its funding.

On 08/11/2025 board meeting, the board of county commissioners voted to enact a 5¢ fuel tax, which will be incorporated into the comprehensive plan. Adopting the proposed updates by 01/01/2026 will make scout eligible for funding by the fuel tax. The amendment to the comprehensive plan will require transmittal to the state for review and will need an additional review by the Board of County Commissioners. Staff requests the board approve transmittal of the proposed ordinance to the state, amending the Seminole County comprehensive plan by revising the introduction, transportation, public schools, facilities, intergovernmental coordination, and capital improvement elements, implementing the 2021 school interlocal agreement, and expanding options for transit services. That concludes my presentation.

Thank you. Thank you, David. We sincerely appreciate it very much. Inquiries from the board. Commissioner Lockhart will start there and move our way down.

I only have well, I have a couple but I don't want to go down too many rabbit trails so I'm just going to keep it very specific here. So one of the elements referred to that the county would support links in its continued efforts and I'm looking for the page so that I can get it correct and now I think I've gone by it. Page three, TRA 27 letter g. The county shall continue to support the efforts of Lynx to improve air quality by converting its fleet to biodiesel, compressed natural gas, and electric vehicles. Did we say that?

I don't know that well, maybe part of this maybe part of this board did at some juncture, but I don't recall this current board doing that.

I just thought it was odd that it was in here, I don't remember having that conversation and that we said we would do that.

My only recollection, I think four or five years ago, I heard something mentioned about it, but I don't know that we this board took it up.

If you want, commissioner sorry, chairman.

You all wanna check on that?

Yeah. We can check to see when it was put in the comp plan, and maybe that will provide you with some insight.

Well, it's new. It's underlined red. So it's it is a it is a new modification, letter g.

That what what page? I'm sorry.

Page three.

Three

of the handout.

Yeah. It's it's under page TRA 27 in the the, block, the letter g. And mister German, I don't expect you to have the answer to that question. I would never do that to you.

I think we're looking into it here.

Okay.

Mister chairman. Yes. The only way I could assume that this would happen you know what happens when you assume things. But the only way that I could do that or think that is that there's been at least three of us on the board over the last number of years. It's brought forward to from links that they're buying new this bus, that bus, electric, biodiesel, and everything. And if we voted on approving that, that would be the only way that I could assume. Because I don't recall us ever as a group saying we support it.

Sure. Mister Gomez may have an answer.

Yes. Jose Gomez, development services That that was included as part of a recommendation by staff from Public Works. But, if this board doesn't support that, we can certainly remove that.

Well, it's not that we don't support it. It's just that which is the first time we're talking about Sure.

So I'm I'm uncomfortable being asked to adopt something as a part of the comprehensive plan that says that the board shall continue to do something that this board hasn't said we shall do. And frankly, the most recent conversations about electric vehicles at Lynx have been that they're not working right now very effectively. So I'm not sure that Lynx even thinks it's a good idea right now.

I think we could we could just take take it out. I don't think there's a need to have it

adding that additional that says it had biodiesel and

Shell makes me nervous. Yeah. Makes me nervous.

Let's take

it out. Yeah. Hit the board.

Everybody okay with that? Commissioner Delari? I said I'm fine with that. Looks like we're all good with removing that. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, commissioner Lockhart.

Thank you.

Commissioner Constantine, you're next.

I received this earlier, but I have looked at the comprehensive plan, and these are all unlike what we just found out. One thing, the most of these things we've if not all these things other than that, we've approved already. I I just you know, just a comment coming back from the Florida Association of Counties meetings. I will tell you that all these transmittals going to the Department of Commerce, which is interesting. The Department of Commerce is in charge of land development.

But Department of Commerce, I think a lot of them are surprised at some of the comments and what they're coming back with, especially when it comes to, you know, protection of land use and and homes after emergencies and things of that nature. But, you know, I mean, I'm not presupposing they will say anything to us, but I wouldn't be surprised if we don't have comments coming back. That's all I'm gonna say.

Interesting. Okay.

Mister Gowari? I have no comments. Mister Her?

No comments.

Commissioner Zembauer. No comments.

Alright. Chairman?

I get a motion. Mister Her.

I move to approve the transmittal of the proposed ordinance to the state amending the Seminole County Comprehensive plan by revising the introduction, transportation, public school facilities, intergovernmental coordination, and capital improvement elements implementing the 2021 school interlocal agreement and expanding options for transit services.

Second. Motion second.

With the modification of removing electric vehicles. So moved. For links. For links. Yeah. Can I just put

the reference on the record?

Absolutely. I found it.

Okay. So with the my understanding is the motion as it stands amended is that it's being amended, as put forth in the agenda except for the change to policy TRA two point three point three point two monitor transit services, subsection g. Agreed.

Secondary agrees? Sure. That's a that's a yes.

Yes. Sure. Yes.

Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed like sign? Hearing none, passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. Next up is the county attorney's report. Miss Latour?

Thank you, chairman. My only item is to discuss the draft letter that we circulated last week and then recirculated earlier today regarding senate bill one eighty. At your last meeting, we had a a discussion on senate bill one eighty and the directions given to staff to create a letter pointing out some of the concerns with the legislation and recommending practical solutions or alternative solutions to what the bill currently contains. I received feedback from each of you, and those recommendations have been incorporated into the letter. Mostly, it was a verbiage change here and there.

There was some formatting altered to make our recommendations bulleted separately to stand out. But all in all, it's substantially the same letter that you saw several days ago. Commissioner Constantine asked that we kind of flush out the recommended process on the bottom of page two regarding pre suit requirements. That's probably the most substantial change, which really was just to further explain what we envisioned a property owner would do if they were damaged by a hurricane and wanted to come to the county and ask for a waiver or relief from a new code section that wasn't in place at the time of the storm. So that's probably the only substantive change, and it really was just to further explain our idea.

So I'll just Okay. The far end to make sure everybody's okay with it. We'll just come down the line, Commissioner?

Yep. I think it was well done. I think you captured what it was that we had asked you to do. I think the only thing that we need to, probably give direction on is who to whom we would like this letter specifically addressed and, and whether we wanna send it to leadership, copy our delegation, or what order we wanna do that. And I think that was the only question I have.

Commissioner Costain? Good point. I think that we should send it to the members of of the legislature that sponsored the bill. Certainly, any co sponsors, certainly, the leadership, certainly, the staff of those committees that it came from, the chief of staff of those committees. I think we also should make sure that we send it to Florida Association of Counties, so that they have and and I will tell you that I did, send the previous one, that, our county attorney gave to us to the Florida Association of Counties because that was besides property tax, one eighty was the other big issue that was discussed in almost every one of the committees, at the Florida Association Counties.

And I will tell you that they're not looking at, the repeal of this bill either like we were talking about. They want strong modifications and clarifications on eighteen and twenty eight, which is what this letter is doing. So they said that this was, in their opinion, also a wonderful letter. Clarification because they wanted to make sure that, you know, as as Kate mentioned, there was just one clarification that we, put together so that everyone would understand what it is.

But I think that they,

we should also send it to them, and I think it's a wonderful letter also.

Commissioner Delauren? The other thing that I

would add, we should also send it to our delegates

as well. I would agree with that. And I I also would send it to the Florida League of Cities.

Mhmm.

They're all in the same boat, but everybody's got they have stuff there. Well,

two things. I thought the whole reason we were doing this was to send it to the entire legislature. Was that not said the

last that he said to all of them. Yes. Yeah.

But I

think that's right.

I I didn't think so.

I I mean I think that was that it wasn't legislation, our our our delegation that we needed to send it to, that we needed to send a talk. That was the comment that was made the last time.

No. No. We no. We were sending it to the majority office and those in leadership and those the chairman of the committees. But I think I think what commissioner constant the what commissioner Constantine said was just now, I think, is what we had said before.

I think that's correct.

Okay. I think that's And then my only other comment is that, I am never a fan of doing anything on a case by case basis. We are, by nature, trying to move away from case by case basis. I understand that this is to create a collaboration toward a better solution, and we should let the letter go as is. But just know that what we asked for here is it will be very difficult to manage in in a post storm environment.

Case by case decisions on how somebody may be eligible to seek relief.

And and I think that's what we're asking for is that clarification.

Yeah. Yeah. Maybe that sorry, commissioner. Commissioner, maybe that's just a a bad choice of words on my part, because that was a recent amendment or recent revision to the letter. You know, if in a perfect world, if we got what we were asking for, I would envision a process with criteria that that applicants would have to reach in order to get this relief that were asked this process that would offer the relief, they would have to meet certain criteria that would be set forth in statute or if they allow the local government to create their own process, we would set that criteria. So that's what I envisioned, and I can take out that phrase and find a better way to state it if that's the direction.

If our intention is not to do this on a case by case basis, which I think would be more palatable to all, then we maybe should rephrase that.

I'm open to that.

I have no issue with that. Let's rephrase it. I'm fine with that.

Okay.

Okay. Anything else? Miss Latour, anything else from the county attorney's office?

No. I have my direction, and we'll finalize it, and you will see it soon for signature.

Very good. Alright. County manager.

Just a couple items, chairman and commissioners. One, do have to apologize. I believe the scout vehicles were locked when we went out there, so I do apologize for that. They got open shortly afterwards. We do have the website up and running. It is scoutseminalfl.com. That is live now, so that's exciting. And it does provide information about the fares, the surface, the sir service zones, the hours, discounts are on there. We've also put a downloadable how you can download the freebie app, you know, the ride freebie app on there as well. So it gives instructions on that.

And then as miss Johnson mentioned this morning with our code enforcement update, beginning next week, code enforcement services will be officially transition to the board of county commissioners, so we're excited about that. We have the officers in in place. We'll be swearing them in soon. Right, Jose? And so we'll have a better direct relationship with our code enforcement team. So we're excited about that.

Great. Question on the on the scout. Did that get disseminated to all the cities and our partners in the community, the school board, Seminole State? Yes. They're They all were given that?

Yep. Absolutely. Yes. And we've actually spoke with all of them. We're in constant communication with them as And even to the fact actually, commissioner Lockhart and I talked about this when when Lynx was going and doing their public meetings about our underperforming routes about changing them, we had a scout table at all those events as well to giving them information on how they can obtain the services through our microtransit system.

Inquiries for the county attorney or county manager? I do have one. I know this is fairly short notice, but I think it's rather important, in light of the 05:30 meeting tonight. And I don't mean to throw any additional work on your staff, but Why not? Would like to see if you are able to, and Tim, provide a savings that the clerk of the court is going to have since they're no longer providing the financial services to the supervisor of election? If that can be quantified or

if you

can figure books. Correct. Mhmm. I also would like to know the total value of the employee bonuses that the clerk has indicated he is going to give some of those employees. I think this is for the county attorney.

I would also like to get an understanding how and if we're able to recoup our $182,000 that we afforded the clerk for a special project for e warrants that we learned later from the judiciary that was already in use, and we were told by the clerk that it was reappropriated for other purposes. If you can give us an answer this afternoon I'll look at this evening, I'd I'd like to have an understanding of that, especially in light that we're being sued by the clerk, for allegedly not giving him enough money. Mhmm. So I think it's gonna be pretty important for me tonight at tonight's hearing. So thank you very much.

Alright. We will go to our district reports. Commissioner DeLaury, you're up first. Yes.

Thank you, mister chairman. Two quick items. One is I was able to go as an alternate for the OEP board meeting last week, and they did a presentation on their trip to Charlotte. And it was very informative. I think I did not go to trip to Charlotte, but the hearing there are takeaways and what they brought back was very informative.

And they're hoping to do some of those same things with either Downtown Orlando or New York City and hopefully get some more information from any of our staff actually went to it. I'd love to get some updates on that as well. And then I did receive an email this morning from a resident in Seminole County that had a situation. I'm not going to give addresses or names. I sent it to the county manager.

I sent it to public works that the individual that was doing work on public right of way working for the county road repair was very insulting and had some issues with it. Contractor had to go back and it was even worse. So I just wanted to make sure that you're all aware of it. I'm not mentioning names or the contractors names because I don't want to make sure we get all the information before we actually do something about it. I'll look for more information with the county manager at the appropriate time, if you would. That is the end of my report.

Thank you Commissioner Constantine, District three.

Thank you very much. I did want to congratulate the fire department at the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association's Patriot's Day. They crew was awarded, the Heroes Award for demonstrating and and and and the saving of lives, when it was concerned potential drowning, in the Oviedo area. Also, I've mentioned the Florida Association of Counties meeting a couple of times today, so I'm not gonna go into that other than to say that they were working on the legislative. I'm passing that along to Tricia as well as the fact that, you know, a a great deal of discussion was was taken and and on the property tax and senate bill one eighty.

And I think that they are they have a very strong strategy as far as education and providing information legislature, but the citizens of Florida and and how, you know, what would happen and on on the elimination or the the continued degradation of property tax and, of course, taking away home rule when it comes to senate bill one eighty. At the Central Florida Regional Planning Council, commissioner Her and I were at Christian and Chris did a wonderful job in in, explaining to the other members about microtransit, and, I will tell you that they were very excited about it and wanted to see, opportunities, potential opportunities that they could have also, in that program and love the fact that we were the guinea pigs. On the twentieth, I believe that commissioner Zimbauer and I were both at the city of Altamonte Springs World Series celebration uptown at Crane's Roost, and it was a wonderful event.

Commissioner Her was there as well.

Oh, I'm sorry. Commissioner Her, I did not see you. Did

did you see commissioner Constee?

Did not. Okay. Were you there?

They're in different places. On the coming up events on the twenty fourth, we have the Central Florida Zoo Board. The twenty fifth at 06:00, Rolling Hills meeting at Altamonte Elementary. On the twenty seventh. Kind of exciting stuff. I think we've all talked about this before. I know that commissioner Zimbauer did the Red Bull tandem roller coaster in Crane's Roost. That is going to be exciting. They're expecting, like, 5,000

plus people. Gonna be a crazy time.

It's gonna be crazy. And October 1 at Seminole State, we're Calno will be meeting. And, did want to also bring up the fact that the, on the fourteenth at 8AM, the sheriff will have his thirteenth annual interfaith prayer breakfast at Longwood Community Building. The birthdays have already been given, but happy birthday, both Kate and and commissioner Her. And I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that, commissioner Lockhart, congratulations on being, on the board of directors for the Institute of County Government.

That was done this past week. Board of directors approved it. So I just wanna let you know that.

Did you

know that? Was a fair hire.

And with that, I'm I'm done.

Alright. Commissioner Lockhart, District 4.

Thank you. I I was not able to to attend this most recent conference, and I knew that that was on the agenda, so I appreciate you not voting against me. That's awesome. Honestly, the institute the motion. Oh, even better.

The institute for county government really is a a great sub organization of the Florida Association of Counties in partnership with the University of Florida. It's really doing good good things to educate local elected officials on all sorts of topics. And, any opportunity that anyone has to attend any of their, classes remotely or in person, I highly recommend it. Last time we talked, we were talking about SunRail and budget and insurance, and I think there was a memo that was sent to all of your offices that helped to give more detail and meat on the bones on the insurance topic. If you have any additional questions from that, ask Rajesh.

Rajesh has just been awesome. The the budget, discussion is still a little fluid. We had a minor hiccup, in that we were just advised that, mayor Dyer will be unable to attend the September, which is where we had planned on adopting the final budget. However, in order to adopt the final budget, there is some discussion about whether it needs to be a unanimous vote. So without a full board, it was canceled.

So there will be no Rail Commission meeting in September. We hope to have everything in line and ready to go for October. We also have a work session on updating on the prospects of transition for operations and a variety of things scheduled for October. The local funding agreement modification has to be adopted before a date certain before the end of the year. And we know how things get dicey with people traveling around the holidays.

So we are, if you will hope along with me that October is going to be a bang up month for the CFCRC and we're going get a lot accomplished and that everyone will be in attendance. Talked about the scout vehicle demo, talked birthdays. Could we get an update on where we are with the educational impact fee study up where I think I saw a message about that several months ago, but would love to get a full update.

Yeah. We've been in conversations with them. Yeah. We'll get with your office and I'll get with

the whole board and let them know.

Obviously, huge proponent of the school district. We want to do everything we can to support them. But as we know, enrollment is not increasing anymore in our public schools and so impact fees are supposed to be used to fund the impact of growth. And if that growth is not occurring, all the more reason why we would need to make sure that we're doing the appropriate thing for our entire community because we know that those impact fees affect the cost of new housing for sure. Today is National Great American Potpie Day. I love a good potpie. So fabulous. Fantastic. That's all I've got.

Okay. Commissioner Her, District 5.

I don't believe there is a good potpie, but I could be wrong about that. Don't believe. I've never had your potpie, so I don't know if that's It's a

too close to a casserole for me.

There's a lot of stuff mixed together.

There's green things in there.

I I was able to attend the ribbon cutting for the Sanford Courtyard Phase 3, and I'll I'll let, the chairman talk a little bit more about that. I'm sure he can talk about that, but it it was it's just a great thing when somebody in the community realizes there's a need and creates affordable housing based on the fact that she literally put her retirement on the line to do this. It is a great community right down the street from us. I did attend the AdventHealth Sanford emergency room grand opening, which is on a little piece of pie property, and you can literally drive around it all day. So it's an amazing use of land and I think in a great area of need.

So that was great. They also do radiology there. It's not just emergency treatment. I do want to give a shout out for annual enrollment meetings, so it is that time of the year where you make your selections on the best benefit plan for you and your family. And if you have not engaged or have not thought about it, don't just let your benefits roll over and then complain about it later.

Attend a meeting, learn more. A lot of them are virtual, and there's way more meetings than any one group could ever need. So thank you to the two Christine's that are doing that on behalf of all of our employees. And the last item that I have to talk to you about is the big one, and that is the 417 Sanford Airport connector. I do think that we sent to your offices a link to all of this material, but I'll pass it down the dais so you have it in front of you as we're speaking.

I do believe that I think this gets you enough to get to the clerk as well. This is the preferred alternative. It's now been narrowed down to two a. This is coming in front of the CFX board on ten nine. I do expect that we'll have several attendees that will speak to it from a public input perspective.

The alternative is the most cost effective, the least impact to property owners, although there is still impact to property owners because the development out there is growing rather quickly. And I would also tell you from an economic feasibility perspective, this the 40 shortfall on the study is $52,000,000 I believe when we heard about this in the initial feasibility stage, the anticipated number was somewhere around $49,000,000 doing that by memory. And so it came in pretty close to what the expectation is. So for that $52,000,000 shortfall, they will be looking for partnerships. Certainly, we're one of them, and there may be others, but there may not.

So I'm just sharing this. I will be asked to vote on this on tennine Unless I hear anything differently from this board today, I intend to vote in favor of it. I truly do believe that if we don't do this now, we will not be able to do it because of the impact to future homeowners on these open lands. It still has impact now. It will have a greater impact years from now. Any questions?

Commissioner Lockhart.

In the context of other partners, what do you know who some of the other partners may be besides in addition to us that may be looked at?

I don't. So once this gets moved forward, then CFX, the airport, and the county sort of lock arms and start looking. That is my understanding of the process. Okay.

And with the airport being owned by the city of Sanford or ostensibly managed what whatever that relationship is, are we talking about the city of Sanford as well?

Well, maybe I can answer that from airport board perspective.

Yeah.

So the airport is a separate government entity, not associated with the city of Sanford other than city of Sanford approves the budget. They don't fall under the same guise, but the Sanford Orlando International Airport cannot be a partner in funding under FAA regulations. So then we would assume that maybe the city of Sanford would be since they actually have the airport in their jurisdiction and they're the government body sponsors and oversees the airport. That discussion is yet to be happening.

Okay. All of the members of this airport authority board are appointed by the Sanford City Commission?

That is correct.

Okay. Separate budgets. Separate budgets, but approved by the city of Sanford.

That's correct.

Okay. Alright. Thank you.

Mister chairman? And I do plan to be there, by the way, and so is the county manager.

Is the county manager. And and I think that's a really clarification. I did not say that, but the airport cannot fund, but the airport can ask for funding elsewhere. Correct. And so I did not say that as clearly as I could have. Okay.

Commissioner Gloire, you have something?

I just want to make a couple of statements, if you don't mind, Mr. Chairman. Sure. Go ahead. First of all, I would agree with everything that's being said here that if it's not done now, then it will never get accomplished. And I think this is looking at the future, just for Seminole County but the region and in particular around the airport. The thing that we need to be doing is once we start looking at those partners, whoever they may be, we should be looking at what those traffic volume numbers are today and what they're projected to be so we can actually explain to those partners why this is so critical. We have to be able to tell the story.

And I think CFX does an excellent job at building that out. They have the numbers. That's

what Right the study is going now, we don't

I don't have those numbers, and I'm sure we're getting a briefing from them. And I just want to make sure that as we move forward, we tell the proper story.

Yes. They're in the process of briefing. I believe the Chair has been briefed in his role on the airport board as well as chairman. I, because I sit on there and they're working their way down the dais. But for me to bring it here is important because the meeting happens on the ninth.

I I think that we should, as a board, we should be wanting you to vote yes. And and with

that said, I wanna make sure we have consensus. Everybody is fine with commissioner Her voting in the affirmative?

Yes. Oh, yeah.

You Commissioner

Thank you. That concludes my report.

Thank you very much. Well, you all covered quite a bit for me, so I was here scratching off things. To follow-up, thank you to Commissioner Her for moderating the ribbon cutting for the Courtyard Phase two project, the 10 new affordable units right here behind us on 2nd Street. Really a great story there on work that's been done by Kimberly Fogle and her group, and I happen to sit on that board as an advisor. You know, she's put her own money in this thing.

This woman took her $4.00 1 ks, cashed it in to build affordable housing. The first 10 units that came online and and those occupants, those families that are now in them, it's amazing what work they've done. They're collaborating with other five zero one c threes, Habitat for Humanity and and others. But the employment benefits that these folks have brought, with the exception of one, their income has increased almost 52% of the people who now live in those homes that they otherwise never had a place to live. And they they've got skin in the game.

So it's a great, great, attribute here for the community. In phase two, the people are going be waiting to move in there as we cut the ribbon the other day. So you to commissioner Her for being there to do that. It's in her district. Also today, I want to thank our staff.

You guys were doing the vendor outreach today at the Sanford Orlando International Airport, along with the city of Sanford, I think city of Winter Springs, and others to greet vendors and help them understand how they conduct or may be able to conduct business, with government entities. Also want to, put on your radar that the Sanford Orlando air show is coming back this year. Thunderbirds will be the headliner, and the date for that is October. I think that's all I have in my report. Other than one thing I do wanna touch on, and I and I struggled to bring this up, but I think it needs to be said.

You know, this past week, we watched mister Charlie Kirk assassinated. And I gotta tell you, when we look across the landscape of our county, we are very fortunate that we don't have the kind of discord that many parts of this country have. And I think that's that's an attribute that comes and starts with leadership within this county. So I want to thank each and every one of you, and our other elected officials who continue to have good dialogue with our citizens and understand other people's perspective. I think it speaks volumes of our county and where we're at.

Because as you look around, even parts of the state, discontent and some of the argumentative things that happened. So I just want to thank each and every one of you for all the parts and roles you play in making sure that our community is one of the top in the country in my opinion. So that's the end of my report. I will go Commissioner Lockhart.

Sorry. I just have one thing that I want to add, not at all related to what you just said, so my apologies. There was a gentleman who made public comment at our budget meeting last time, who I later found out connected the dots that, he was also the gentleman who had been asking me to meet him at his home before 07:00 in the morning to take a two and a half mile walk together. And so when the comment was made that he was an orphan of commissioner Lockhart's, that is what that's that was referring to. I just thought I wanted to get I believe he's going to be speaking again this evening, and I don't wanna say anything in his I don't wanna I'm not trying to but for context, for any of our staff or for my colleagues, there I I declined his option, his the opportunity he gave me to go on a walk with him, and so that's why he's a little unhappy with me.

Sounds that you understand. And and We've all

had that happen to us. Yeah.

Where

people would blame us for something.

Well, and in today's world, I don't feel comfortable going on walks and meeting people at their homes by myself, so.

Sure. Understood. Yeah. Alright, Felisa. Good stuff. All right, we will go to our non agenda portion of the meeting. Anyone desires to speak before the commission on non agenda items, we will go there and we will check with the clerk. Do we have anybody here to speak?

No, sir.

And we shall be adjourned till 05:30 this evening. Good evening, and welcome to the Board of County Commission budget hearing. The date is 09/23/2025. Welcome, everyone. I would ask you to check your phones or any other electronic devices you may have.

Make sure they're on silent. If you are here to speak on this item tonight, if you'd be kind enough to grab a speaker's form in the lobby, bring it up front, give it to miss Dominique so we make sure we've got you in line to come up and speak. Thank you all for being here tonight. We sincerely appreciate it. The purpose of tonight's hearing is to present the final millage rates and budget for fiscal year 2526 and to allow for public comments.

Before we begin, the public should be reminded that the Board of County Commissioners does not have control over the tax levies or budgets of the school board, the water management district, the property appraiser, tax collector, or any of the seven cities in Seminole County. Any questions regarding assessed property valuations should be addressed to our property appraiser, David Johnson. And there's folks from his office here tonight. There we are. Good to see you.

Thank you very much. Before I turn it over to the county manager, I just want to take a moment and thank our staff. County manager, In my opinion, you've risen to the occasion. We we gave you a task almost eighteen months ago to go find cuts. Each one of your departments dug in deep, made cuts. You brought it back to us for a work session. We ask you to go look again, make additional cuts. Some of our constitutional officers have done the same thing. So we sincerely appreciate Thank you. You know, this is not the normal that we typically, you know, spend eighteen months digging around trying to find all the cuts that we can and asking everybody to take a serious haircut.

That said, of course, we know there's a lot of things that have escalated in price. And so I imagine we'll have that discussion tonight. So thank you all for your your due diligence and your work on that, including our clerk of the courts, our sheriff, property appraiser, tax collector, and so forth. So mister county manager, the floor is yours.

Thank you, mister chairman and commissioners and the public. The purpose of the meeting tonight is to present to the public the final budget for all funds and the final millage rates for the county wide district, fire MSTU, and roads MSTU, as well as the rollback rates. By the state definition, the rollback rate is a millage rate when applied to next year's tax base, excluding the new construction that will generate the same revenue as we raised in the previous year. The budget and millage rates before you tonight are a result of nearly a year of collaborative work. As many of you have indicated, we knew this budget year was going to be a challenging one.

Due to the rising cost for public safety, transportation, and state mandated services, this year's budget process began earlier than usual. We developed budget guidelines that focused on essential services and discouraged discretionary increases. For the first time, these guidelines were also shared with our constitutional offices, creating consistency and transparency across all participants. In the months that followed, the board and staff engaged in a series of workshops and retreats, including a full day session where department directors developed over 40 efficiency initiatives to cut costs, streamline operations, and improve service delivery. By May and June, commissioners had reviewed every constitutional office, department, and service area, ensuring a comprehensive and transparent approach to balancing the fiscal responsibilities with maintaining the essential services our growing community relies on.

And at this point, mister chairman, I'd like to turn it over to mister Jeks who will make a staff presentation. And then if you would like, could open up for public comment.

Will do. Mister Jeks, floor is yours.

Thank you, commissioner. I'm Timothy Jeks with the Office of Management and Budget. In accordance with Florida statute, truth and millage requirements, this is the second public hearing to adopt the final millage rates and budget. The budget before you is balanced for all funds with no changes from the tentative budget approved at the first public hearing. I will now present the final millage rates.

The first column shows the current f y '25 adopted rates. The second column shows the rollback rate, which would generate the same amount of ad valorem tax revenue as the current year excluding new construction. The next column shows the f y '26 millage rates, and the last column shows the percentage of the final millage rates over the rollback rate. As you can see, the FY '26 final rate for the countywide millage is 0.5 mills higher than the FY '25 adopted rate. The increase in millage will be used to maintain public safety services, offset rising cost of transportation, meet state mandated regulations, and remove the existing budget deficit.

The the fire and road district millage rates will remain unchanged from f y '25. The general countywide millage of 5.3751 mills is 16.42% above the rollback rate of 4.6168 mills. The fire rescue MSTU millage of 2.7649 mills is 5.43% above the rollback rate of 2.6226 mills. The Unincorporated Road MSTU millage of 0.1107 mills is 5.33% above the rollback rate of 0.1051 mills. And the and the aggregate millage rate for all BCC taxing districts is 7.3663 mills, which is 12.7% over the current aggregate rollback rate of 6.5363 mills.

I will now present the budget. The total countywide budget is $1,215,087,959 for all governmental funds, special revenue funds, enterprise funds, and internal service funds. The chart on the right shows a breakdown of the countywide expenditure budget, and there are no adjustments from the tentative budget approved at the first public hearing. That concludes my presentation.

Thank you very much. Any questions for staff at this juncture? Seeing none, we will go to public comment. Miss Dominique, if you will list the first three slowly so everybody catches the names.

Rafael Carmano.

Carmano.

Pete Buehs. And Jan Bartlink.

Say the last one again