City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon and welcome to the Osceola Board of County Commissioners for June 1st, 2026. At this time, if everyone will please stand for a moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Commissioner Jaynor. Commissioner Jaynor.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you so much please be seated board that now brings us to our approval of the agenda county attorney are there any changes no changes wonderful county manager any changes today all right bring it back to the board I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Before this now brings us to our recognitions, proclamations, and presentations. And our first item up is an adoption of a proclamation declaring the month of June 2026 as LGBTQ Plus Pride Month here in Osceola County presented by Commissioner Greaves.

All right. So whereas the citizens of Osceola County in the United States are committed to the belief that all people deserve to live with dignity and respect, free from fear and violence, and protected against discrimination. And whereas Osceola County celebrates the history, diversity, contributions of the LGTBQ plus community, and supports a society where every individual can live authentically and without intolerance. And whereas June 12th, 2026 marks the 10th anniversary of the tragic attack at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where 49 innocent lives, including Osceola County residents, were lost and many others suffered physical and emotional injuries in a hateful act of violence that deeply impacted the LGBTQ plus community, Central Florida and the nation. And whereas the Pulse tragedy reminds us we are not truly equal until every person is afforded the same rights and opportunities. And that when one of us experiences discrimination, it affects all of us. And that, Our journey is not complete until the members of the LGTB Plus community are treated equally in our society. And whereas the LGTB Plus Center, Orlando's Inc. mission promotes and empowers the LGTBQ Plus community and its allies throughout the Central Florida region through advocacy, education, information, and support, such as programs, STD testing and awareness, and various other invaluable services to members of the community, counseling as well, whereas through the efforts of organizations such as the LGTB Plus Center Orlando and others, barriers continue to be addressed in the areas of health care, public safety, employment, and the recognition of relationships, while at the same time recognizing the many contributions the community makes as part of the Osceola County's rich cultural fabric. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Osceola Board of County Commissioners does hereby proclaim June 2026 to be known as LGTB Plus Pride Month, and I so move. Second.

Motion to second. All those in favor, state by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Congratulations.

And I have George Wallace here from the Center to speak.

I just want to say thank you. It's always so heartwarming when politicians call and ask me to come and do something like this and are not trying to erase us as so many have this past couple of years. It's been a rough couple of years. So I just want to say I appreciate Osceola County very, very much. So thank you, Cheryl.

Thank you, George. And I want to let everybody know that Osceola Pride event will be Sunday, June 28th from 12 to 6 at Osceola Heritage Park if you'd like to come out and join. And we'll get a photo.

Thank you.

Congratulations. Acting County Manager, if you'll please join me down front now so we can do the recognition of county employees who will celebrate a milestone anniversary, 10, 15, and 20 years of service.

good afternoon commissioners brenda hernandez human resources to recognize those who are celebrating milestones anniversaries for june 2026. celebrating 15 years of service kenya knight sherwood or captain sherwood corrections department Also celebrating 20 years of service, Carlos Castro Community Development. Thank you so much, commissioners.

Board, that now brings us to our annual Emergency Management Update in Hurricane Season Outlook for 2026 by Mr. Bill Linton, our Emergency Management Director. Welcome, Bill.

Well, good afternoon, Chairman and Board. Bill Linton, Emergency Management Director. I'd like to just spend the next few minutes on just an update for this incoming hurricane season. And today is the first day of hurricane season. So last month, we had our annual Before the Storm event. This year, we did it at Neo City Campus. Had a great turnout there. We did some changes this year. You can see there at the bottom photo, we did have our partnership with West Channel 2, Tony Manalfi, Will Yurt from the National Weather Service Melbourne, and again, our state executive director, Kevin Guthrie, joined us for one of our panels, and we decided to do a little bit more education this year. So we did do a panel there on the right side with flood mitigation and preparedness with our group, our experts there. We did one on pet safety and preparedness as well as after the storm as well, looking at debris and our partnerships with our volunteer organizations. So well attended event. We appreciate the support there. Just a slight overview from last year. We're very fortunate with no impacts to the u.s landfall we did have the one landfall in jamaica and definitely with the three category fives and the category five there and the caribbean but we were very fortunate the way the patterns did lay out a lot of those headed to north atlantic and for the first time in several years we did not have any impacts in the Gulf Coast. So interesting to look at that now. And we finished the year with 13.5 and 4. So that brings us to what we're looking at this year. In April, Dr. Phil Klossbach from Colorado State University unveiled his first forecast there, and that was 13.6 and 3. And then just last week here in Lakeland, the NOAA and the National Hurricane Center provided their forecast. They always do a probability. So you can see there are eight to 14 named storms, three to six hurricanes, and then one to three major hurricanes. So where does that look for us this year? The last seven years, we've been very active and above above average. We're actually looking at a below average season. But again, I want to encourage our community and our residents to stay prepared. It only takes one to have a lasting impact on our community. We'll probably have, we will have another update just on June 8th from Colorado State. So we'll see what those numbers look like. But right now we are moving into that El Nino season. You've probably heard that on the news and You hear the term super El Nino too, but the warmer waters in the Pacific are what's going to cause that change a little bit for us. So cooler waters in the Atlantic, lesser upper winds that will hamper down the development and the storm. So that's good news for us. So hopefully that's a good sign. The other event actually has already started this past week, and that's the Sahara dust. A lot of that's moving over. It's like the dust storm's coming, but that actually impacts storm formations too. So hopefully that'll stay in place for at least the next couple months. So hopefully, definitely hamper down some of that as well. Here's the name list for this year. We do have a couple repeats as they were not hurricane rated. So you're going to probably see Fay, East IS. We did have during the COVID years. So some of those. So hopefully we do not have to go through this list at all this fall. But just an added preparedness item. Doing my history and research with National Weather Service in Melbourne. During El Nino years, we have still had some increased formations. One of those being 2004. We all remember that. very well, Charlie, Frances, and Gene. And then also Hurricane Michael. And that's one of the ones that scares us in emergency management off the coast there of Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula. And in two days, that was a Category 4 storm making landfall. And the panhandle is actually rated after the damage assessment as a Category 5. So those are things we still have to keep our minds on. Definitely, we saw that rapid intensification last year in the Caribbean, so definitely can't let our guard down, as I say, and just be prepared for the full season through November 30th. One of the things I did want to highlight as I brought up last year, this is now going to become the regular standard graphic Instead of just the gray pattern seeing on there, now that we'll see the shading for the wind speed and the impacts coming into the inland. For us emergency managers, that really helps us communicate those threats, those risks, those hazards coming in. So we'll be seeing that as the normal graphic if any storms are impacting our way. and what that looks like. Because as we say, those winds and rain events stretch far outside the cone of uncertainty. So that really lets us get that out to the public and our partners as well. So with that, I will be glad to take any questions if the board has any.

Board, any questions? Commissioner Chowdhury?

I just wanted to send a reminder that all the residents could also sign up for the text message alert system. Could you just remind them where to do that and how to do that? And also checking out the website that you guys have.

Definitely. Yeah, definitely. All of our information is at readyosceola.org. Our checklists and preparedness videos will be on there as well. And I encourage all of our residents and guests that are visiting the area to sign up for Alert Osceola. Really simple. Alert Osceola. All one word to 888-777.

So folks could text that, alert Asiola, and they'll get all of these updates from you guys directly. Correct. Thank you.

Thank you for that, Commissioner Johnry. Any other questions? Bill, thank you so much, and I hope you and I aren't spending much time together this summer.

I agree. Thank you, Chairman.

All right, Board, that ends our proclamations and presentations. That now brings us to hear the audience. County Attorney, I don't believe we have anyone signed up to speak today, correct?

That's correct.

Thank you so much for that. Board, that now brings us to our consent agenda, which is items 4 through 27. Are there any items the Board would like to pool for separate vote or discussion? If not, I will entertain a motion. We have a motion. Second. And we have a second. My Commissioner Jaynor. Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor state by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes unanimously. All right, well, we have a rare one, a regular agenda item. And this is the election of the chair for the 2026 Value Adjustment Board pursuant to Florida Statute 194.015. And I believe we need a chair and a vice chair, or is it just the chair?

This just, yeah, it just indicates electing the chair.

Okay. I like that we follow the protocol. That's what we always do. That's a good job. So we have a motion and a second to make Commissioner Booth that individual. Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor, state by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Congratulations, Commissioner Booth.

Good job.

Good job. Let's hope he shows up. All right. Board, that now brings us to our constitutional officers or other governmental agencies. I don't believe anyone is in here from anyone else. County attorney, anything else to add today?

Nothing further. Thank you.

Thank you. County manager. All right. Great. Appreciate it. Commissioner Janer, you want to start us off today? It's pink.

I sure will. First off, I have a couple of board appointments. I'd like to go ahead to the career source, Central Florida Board of Directors, reappoint Stella Siracusa. Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor, step by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes unanimously.

Okay, and the other thing is I would like to appoint to the library at large seat. We did receive an application from Ms. Laura Morales.

Okay. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, state by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes unanimously.

Okay. I want to remind everybody, if you live in District 2, still looking for an additional member to the Osceola County Lakes Advisory Committee. So if water is your jam, please volunteer to serve in that committee. Next, we have a couple of slides. So, Board, I was asked to go ahead and welcome Days to Shine. This is an event about women, women empowerment, and it came to Osceola County for the first year It's usually held in Miami. And so I had the pleasure of doing that on May 27th. And as you could see, Mr. Emilio Estefan himself was there.

And that was in your neck of the woods, Commissioner Chaudhry, over at the Estefan Kitchen.

Very nice for those of you who haven't visited. Next, just a reminder, we have our sit and be fit on the 9th and the 23rd of June. So come on out if you're a senior interested in exercising. Even if you're not a senior, that won't turn you away if you're interested. Next. um very exciting board you know the number of years we've been working on buen vecino with the osceola county council on aging as well as hud and they're finally at the point where they're going to start accepting applications however um letting everybody know and we are doing some outreach on this The applications will be accepted online only by the Council on Aging and for one day only, on June 12th. And applications, they had wanted to do it based on a lottery. Unfortunately, HUD is requiring it first come, first serve. So we want to advise residents, if you are interested, please apply as early as you can. On June the 12th, for Buen Vacino against these are senior living, 62 and over is a definition of senior by the federal government for this particular scenario. So 62 and over, you do have to qualify and rent is capped at 30% of the income. There is just one bedroom villas. They're all one bedroom villas. They're about, no, they are one bedroom. They're about 600 square feet, but they're super cute. You see a picture of the kitchen. There's a living room, a kitchen with that eat at counter. You would have to do bar stools. There's no dining room area. There's a bedroom. They're all fully, of course, bathroom, closet. Fully ADA accessible. Every unit is ADA accessible. So that's really nice. I've had the opportunity to walk through it a couple times now. And it's a really, really nice place for our seniors. But there's only 60 units available. So if you help me spread the word, anybody could apply. They do have to qualify. Again, June 12th. You know, we don't have those details yet. Once we have more details from, again, the Osceola Council on Aging is going to be doing it. I think it's probably going to be like 9 a.m. or something because we are going to be opening our libraries for people that don't have computer access or need assistance. Also, our housing community development department, is offering assistance for those friends because they are seniors i'm concerned you know online not all of them are have somebody to help them through the process or could do the process but we will have plenty of assistance available but we'll have an exact time and more information a little bit later but we're starting the outreach so awesome that's great congrats anything else that oh i'm sorry that that's it for me that's enough commissioner green anything to add today

Yes. As you see, we had a mega bingo on the 20th, and we had around 55 participants. These are some of the winners. The gentleman in the center was from the Opportunity Center. He was so excited that he had won. He actually went to the restroom when we pulled his number. and then let's see next i think hopefully oh no we go to the next one instead and then i'll come back to that so the next dates for our bingo are june 10th uh july 8th august 12th september 9th October 14th. They left out November 4th on this flyer, but November 4th and then December 9th. So if you want to participate, it's a fun time. There's great prizes. Love to have you there. And then if you switch back. You heard me talk about the Neo City Character Design Contest, and while we didn't wind up going with any of the particular characters that were designed, they did give us some really interesting, an opportunity to maybe build off of those. But I still wanted to recognize the students and the teacher. This is Jenny Mohes from Tohopa Kaliga High School. She's absolutely amazing. And there's two other teachers there as well. But it was her initiative, got the students involved. They did full boards, as you can see, of how it could be displayed on different retail material. Her background is incredible, came from a six-figure job, and then worked at Valencia, and now teaches these students. It's just, if you're in her class, you are certainly getting top-notch education there. And they actually, the seniors get to have their own kind of business. And so if you wanna hire them to do artwork and such, they're available. But in the center, we wound up going with three different winners. We have Emily Castro, which got the $500. But then there was two others that really stood out. Mackenzie Silvas, $250. And then Miriam Restermay, which I probably butchered that a little bit, $250. And then for their class, they got $1,000. That will help with other equipment for what they do there. Just love being involved with that. These kids are just absolutely amazing. They are willing to keep going, so I'll leave that in your hands for once I'm gone to decide how that's going to shake out. But they just did a tremendous job. There was other schools that participated, but this one had the most and the way they presented everything was really top notch.

Awesome. Perfect. Thank you so much. Commissioner Chowder, anything to add at all?

Yes, thank you. Just a last reminder on the summer bash, we've gotten over 200 for sure. I think we only have about 50 or 60 more tickets, so about 240 already signed up and registered. So we still have some space. This is for Osceola County residents and students starting this summer. Remember, this is made by the student committee that I work closely with. They are very excited. It is going to take place on June 6th, Champions Gate area. They do have like the Topgolf theme. So it's going to be a lot of fun. It's from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. So if you haven't signed up, please attend. And you don't have to be a student. We've got some senior citizens going because they, too, want to go golf and have fun. It will be a great day with food and prizes and all of that. So it will be a lot of fun. The other thing I just wanted to also remind them, we still have also an open seat for District 1 for the Lake Advisory Committee. And also there's a lot of other seats. So we just want to remind folks, if you want to participate, this is a great way. So please just reach out and let us know. And if you have any questions about events or any of these seats, you can reach out to me directly via email at osceola.org. That's all I have.

Awesome. Thank you so much. And real quick, Board, we've got a community resource fair coming up once again down in District 3 on June 24th. I want to thank everyone in advance who's going to participate and help us put this on. It's always a great way for our citizens to connect with all the different services besides Osceola County as well. And then Commissioner Grieve, I've got a mega bingo coming up as well, June 26th. Always great events, just a great way to connect with our community as well. So thank all of our teams for continuing to put those on. And I want to end with one last thing. I was up in Tallahassee last week. I had a chance to talk to several senators. I had a chance to talk with Ginger Delagal from the Florida Association of County, some reps as well about the property tax idea that's being put out there by our governor. which would create a $250,000 exemption. And I know some of the numbers I've seen early on are by year two of the process, I think Osceola County loses somewhere between $150 and $175 million in general fund revenue to fund all of our basic services um i've seen a lot of communities already creating infographics of what that looks like and posting that online it's it's interesting to see what the comments are but there again it's it's online so you can't expect to see anything good um but i i really think we we i know i talked to county manager fisher the other day about this over the weekend and i know he said he's getting with his team tomorrow i believe to begin looking at that but i bring this up because If it passes, which it probably will pass in Tallahassee, that'll go on our ballot in November and then go into effect over those following years. But my concern is if it gets on the ballot, the way it's proposed, the supervisor of election is not to be funded. The property appraiser is not a fundable thing. We could fund them, but it's not stipulated by law all the five, six things that we are mandated to fund. And then school funding is kind of a blur because they've almost lumped that in. And we may be a decent community. We're not a rich community, but we're not a poor community either. And then they have a trust fund that they're going to set up that has no No idea of where the money comes from, nor how the money will be distributed, or what the distribution would be for. And as I remind everyone, there's a distribution every year in Tallahassee, and that's called appropriations. And certain communities do a lot better than other communities do. annually there it is it is it is easy to see so the idea to think that we would be a community that would then again see funds from this trust fund that we will probably be paying into from our community to then fund other other communities throughout state of florida so i just Just wanted to pass along those conversations I had. I know Florida Association County has a spreadsheet available that shows all the different counties and the impacts, but it's it's monumental. And and there again, I know we are limited by the law they created two years ago, which prohibits us from spending tax dollars on even educating constituents. However, they created in this legislation that there will be a $5 million fund. That's basically a welfare fund to be able to give back to to tax collectors because tax collectors will have to create on their site a way for you to go and look at your property and look at your overall savings. So they are violating the law they actually created to keep us from educating voters. And so and then the thought in Tallahassee is that somehow we as local government are going to create this groundswell effort to to fight this but it's it's illegal for us to to do that so there's a lot of um mixed messaging and then when you if you have a chance to talk to ginger she would even tell you that they're changing constitutionally how things are actually created and funded and and through this with with kind of no regard towards it so it's specifically with education funding so good times in the state of florida as always But I just really wanted to pass that along and make sure y'all are aware, because I'm sure constituents are going to come to you real soon. And I think it's going to behoove us to actually have factual information to what those impacts would look like in our community moving forward. Commissioner Jane, I saw you raise your hand.

Thank you for bringing that up. It's been a source of concern, I think, for all of us. And when you think about, besides all the programs that you said would go away, I mean, when you think about it, it's going to impact our budgets for infrastructure, for our parks, for our transportation. Stormwater, I mean, across the board, I cannot think of one thing that it would not impact. I mean, we even subsidize, I know we have a fire fee, but we subsidize the fire department. So I mean, this is where, yeah. As we know, the majority of our dollars go to public safety in one way, form, or then another. The impacts and ramifications of something like this are huge, and you are so right. I see pictures of third world countries come to mind because that's what they do, and they just let their infrastructure and everything deteriorate and crumble around them. So you might not notice the impact on year one as much, but as time goes by, you are certainly going to notice it. Yeah.

That's a great point. I keep trying to remind people about hurricanes that we just had a presentation on and how local government has to front the costs of that cleanup and all those efforts that happen in our community and what we've seen in the federal government and some of some of those reimbursements whether it's in north carolina or other states we won't have we won't have the capacity to be able to front load those efforts to even try to get replenished the same thing with grants federal and state grants at least i think there's always a match if if not a double match of what it is there will not be available funds to go after grants because we won't have the funding available to do a match to move something forward so it's it's huge ramifications and sorry to soapbox it but it's it's been a it's been an interesting week up there so and with that we will stand adjourned and turn it over to our neo city property owners association

Okay, give them a minute just to switch over the computer stuff and for folks that don't want to stay for it can pile out. You ready, Amanda? Okay.