Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Welcome to Seminole County BOCC meeting on 01/27/2026. If you would, make sure you silence your as I have something beeping as we speak. Silence your technology. That would be wonderful. And I am going to turn it over to pastor Bob Melhorn from Integrity Church. He is gonna lead us in prayer and the initiation of the pledge. Thank you, pastor.

Good morning, everyone. Let's pray. Holy One, what a gift it is to rise in the morning and to be able to thank you for another day. And what a privilege it is to live in a land where we can elect leaders who guide us in the matters that affect our lives in so many different ways. We would pray for our our commissioners today.

We would pray for them that they would be mindful of the great responsibility, the decisions they make affecting the lives of so many thousands of people. We would also ask for them the confidence knowing that you are with them to give them your wisdom, your guidance, your strength. We ask your blessing upon the commissioners, their families, our county manager, upon all the employees of Seminole County, and upon all who are so blessed as to make Seminole County their home. We pray in the great name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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

Thank you, pastor, for your kind words. I'd like to give a shout out. We have two elected officials in the audience with us today, commissioner Sarah Rees from City of Altamont and Mr. Anthony Armandillo from the City of Casselberry. Thank you for joining us this morning. And there's apparently a cheering section up here for you. We're gonna move to awards and presentations. The first proclamation proclaiming 2026, the year of celebration in honor of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the United States of America, will be read by commissioner Lockhart. Thank you.

Good morning, everyone. It is my distinct honor as a proud American and a daughter of the American Revolution to move the following proclamation of the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners proclaiming 2026 as a year of celebration in honor of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the United States Of America in Seminole County, Florida. Whereas 07/04/2026 marks the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a defining moment in human history, which proclaimed America's independence from Great Britain and King George the third, an act that profoundly changed not only the course of America's history, but the history of the entire world. And whereas the fourteenth and fifteenth British colonies of East Florida with its capital at Saint Augustine and West Florida with its capital at Pensacola were created in 1763 with the passage of the proclamation of 1763 by the British by the British crown and are often omitted from the traditional narrative the American Revolution and Seminole County is located in, what was known as East Florida. And whereas the British crown ordered German surveyor and cartographer John William Gerard de Brom to survey its holdings in East Florida upon its acquisition from the Spanish in 1763.

And de Brom traveled along the St. Johns River into what is now Seminole County, and likely became one of the first Europeans to visit this area. And in 1765, subsequently created a map known as the map of East Florida, east of the eighty second degree of longitude from the meridian of London, surveyed by William Gerard de Brombe, surveyor general for the Southern District Of North America in two parts. That represents the earliest known surveyed map of portions of what would become Seminole County. And whereas the British Crown granted land allotments to individuals such as doctor William Stork, sir Alexander Grant, John Beresford, captain Samuel Barrington, Captain John Jervis, and William Henry Ricketts, Esquire, around Lake Grant, modern day Lake Monroe, Lake Beresford, modern day Lake Jessup, and the Upper Lake, modern day Lake Harney.

And these people became some of the first surveyed landowners in what would become the cities Winter Springs, Oviedo, and the village of Geneva in Seminole County, demonstrating Seminole County's ties to the eighteenth century in a way heretofore unknown. And whereas Seminole County, Florida joins communities across our state and nation in recognizing the importance of this milestone and in reaffirming our shared commitment to the ideals and values that continue to unite us as Americans, and whereas the year 2026 offers an opportunity for all Americans to reflect upon and celebrate the enduring principles of freedom, democracy, and self governance that have guided our nation since its founding in 1776. And whereas the United States semi quincentennial provides historic occasion to honor the vision, courage, and sacrifices of the patriots who secured our independence, as well as the generations that have since worked to expand and protect the blessings of liberty for all. And whereas, the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners encourages residents, schools, businesses, civic organizations, and cultural institutions to participate in activities and programs throughout the year that celebrate our nation's history, honor those who have served to defend its principles, and inspire future generations to uphold the promise of freedom and equality.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the board Seminole County Board Of County Commissioners, hereby designate the year 2026 as a year of celebration in honor of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of The United States Of America with pride, gratitude, and unity adopted this January 2026.

Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, motion passes unanimously.

I think we have Doctor. Deborah Bauer here from the Seminole County Semi Quintanennial Planning Subcommittee Chair. That's with practicing to accept the award. Commissioners, if you'd like join us on the floor for a picture as well, that would be fabulous. As we are reassembling, I'll give a shout out to the chairman of our school board, Mr.

Robin Doctor. Robin Dellinger, who I did not see earlier, so I'm sorry that I left you out. We're going to move to our county investment advisor report. This is a little less fun than our proclamations, but we always look forward to this every month. So welcome to the podium.

Good morning. I have my correct glasses on today, so I'll be able to see what I actually put in front of you. Okay. Obviously, a lot of things going on. There is another FOMC meeting tomorrow, which is the same position we were in the last time I was here in early December. There was a meeting right around the corner. The Fed is not expected to move. They're expected to pause while they kind of assess things after cutting for three straight meetings. The Supreme Court this is very important, but the Supreme Court has not rendered a verdict yet on the constitutionality of the reciprocal tariffs, and that's gonna be very impactful when it happens. I thought that was gonna happen in December and then thought it was gonna happen a couple weeks ago, and and now it looks like it's not really clear when that'll happen, but it could be at any time.

The economy continues to to exceed expectations. Fourth quarter GDP growth is tracking right now at 5.4%, which is pretty remarkable if you go back and look at where the economists believe fourth quarter growth would be before the quarter started. But that growth is not producing jobs, and that's the great big but. That's the thing that I think was completely unexpected. If we're really growing at 5.4% in the fourth quarter, we're actually losing jobs.

And what the Fed does when it cuts rates is hoping to stimulate the economy, and in doing so, creating jobs. And there that that link between growth and jobs seems to be severed. Inflationary pressure is is noisy, uneven. It is still above, slightly above the Fed's target. But frankly, the where inflation is right now and where it's expected to be shouldn't prohibit the Fed from cutting. Again, they would do that to support job growth. But right now, the economy is growing much faster than people thought it would be. A lot of Fed issues in play right now. The DOJ launched a criminal probe on on chairman Fed chairman Powell. Powell pushed back real strong on that.

There is the Supreme Court's hearing arguments on whether or not Trump can fire for cause. Lisa Cook, although that cause is the big question, and then the decision on the new Fed chairman has been delayed. We no longer think it's gonna be Hassett. And I think that was a trial balloon that the market decided wasn't what the market wanted to see. So not really clear to me at all who the Fed chairman is gonna be.

It feels a lot like a game show to where we're gonna get a reveal on the last minute, and I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Unfortunately, when I wrote this a few days ago, the idea of a government shutdown at the end of the month was very, very unlikely. And now the idea of another government shutdown at the end of the month is is fairly likely and everything that goes along with that. So brace yourself. The only thing I can say related to the economy is that the we were shut down for forty three days in the fourth quarter, and that really didn't seem to impact growth at all.

It was expected to shave a full percentage points off of growth, but we're tracking at 5.4. Clearly, that didn't happen. This is GDP growth. Third quarter was 3.8%. Fourth quarter I'm sorry. Third quarter was 4.3%. Fourth quarter, as I said, is tracking even higher than that. A lot of that has to do with with tech spending, in particular, AI spending. It's been unprecedented. But then also, believe it or not, the consumer continues to be very, very resilient, keeps on spending.

I'm gonna basically show you a couple graphs here. I'm not gonna go into any detail, but these are that's payroll growth. That's the Bureau of Labor Statistics payroll growth, and you can clearly see that things have slowed down markedly over the second half of the year. If you don't trust the BLS, and some people don't, then you look at the ADP payroll reports, and that has been negative four of the last seven months. So it's consistent.

They're losing jobs. This is inflation. Again, I'm not gonna go into detail on that except to say that on a year over year basis in December, core CPI was at 2.6%. That matched the lowest since April 2021. A lot of CPI has to do with shelter costs, and housing costs are coming down.

So the expectation is that regardless of where goods inflation is, that that overall core inflation could continue to to move lower and and be favorable for Fed rate cuts, again, if the economy shows any sign of slowing down. I would think that if the Fed did cut rates in 2026, the problem would be that, in essence, they'd stimulate inflation, and they wouldn't necessarily create jobs. Because, inherently, AI is is is engineering that that basically allows us to do more with technology, and and by doing so, you you do get rid of jobs. So you will see how that all develops. I think when the year began, most people believed or most economists, most hopeful people believed that AI would allow us to to grow without sacrificing the jobs, and I'm not really sure that's the case anymore.

This is a two year treasury note yield. Over the course of last year, so you can see that at the beginning of last year, we were quite a bit higher, quite a bit lower right now. It's been drifting up just a little bit with the expectation that the Fed may or may not cut certainly as much in 2026. I believe the Fed will cut two to three times. I think that the idea now of them cutting more than that is probably greatly reduced.

The idea of cutting less than that will you're still going to see a lot of pressure from the administration for several rate cuts. Investment options, I I try to put these up. Just as a reminder, the scratch dues represent the the previous meetings. So the overnight rates, because the Fed cut in December, are lower than they were. The rates from six months to three years, really, depending on where it is on the curve, higher or lower.

For the most part, we're kind of in a holding pattern. Looking at recent transactions, so the clerk's office managed to to term out some of the pool rates. So there at the bottom of those recent transactions, that's basically taking overnight pool rates into terms and terming them out. Locked in some nice close to three nineties, which I think are gonna be nice to have into the summer months. Also termed out some some bank deposits into term bank deposits.

Pretty much precautionary moves as much as anything else. I think really smart moves. And then the two purchases there of treasuries are what we had talked about at the previous meetings. So not a whole lot of upcoming maturities. There were no maturities in January. That has to do with the fact that so much money's coming in. There's no point in in doing that. There is one small maturity in February and one small maturity in in March, so that's not really an issue. The issue is that there's a lot of tax money that came in. And the one thing that I wanna note is that that $70,000,000 worth of purchases that are gonna go out a little bit longer and again keep that idea of locking in to the extent that we can.

But last year at this time, we did about a 160,000,000, and this time, we're doing 70,000,000. And I just want you to know that the reason why is that it's not as clear what's likely to happen during the course of this year. Liquidity is more important. We found that out this summer whenever we got below 10% liquidity because so much had been invested. So my inclination is to or my recommendation is to keep more liquidity going into this year as a precaution.

There's still a lot of money now that's been pushed out into 2027 and 2028. So as much as anything else, that's a hedge. It's not a bet. It's just a hedge. Again, our overnight rates are roughly three sixty ish, two year roughly three sixty ish, three year roughly three sixty five.

The portfolio is yielding four zero six as of the end of the year. With these recommendations, my calculation shows that it would still be above 4% in February. I guess the only thing to kind of leave you on is the idea that we're going to have a lot more liquidity going into the year when we did last year. And as much as anything else, that was just our understanding of the needs that we didn't understand as well as we had before. So coming back up here to the recommendations and asking for his usual help because I just had a tendency to stumble through this.

Alright. I'll help you.

Thank you.

Commissioners, any questions?

None.

I have one. Significant change in our liquidity, and I just want to look to the county manager and say, does that feel like the right? Okay. I just wanted to validate that. And then the second notion is, and just a confirmation, Scott, the 4.03 for the portfolio, that is after the liquidity play and should remain the same until we make another change. I just want to make sure you get that on the right.

So that 4.3 is my expectation granted we haven't bought these yet. Right. That is my expectation of where the portfolio would be at the January, so the end of this month after the security purchases have been made. I don't really know what's happening with the cash in and out, so there's going to be, you know, that factor that I'm unaware of. The one maturity in February, my expectation is by the time we to the February, we're probably going have a very similar yield to where we are now.

Fabulous. Thank you. Commissioners, I'll look for a motion.

Motion to implement the recommendation of our financial adviser based on the report submitted today and recommend the clerks implement the board's direction.

Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing none. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you so much for being here, and thank you for your good work.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

We're going to move to the consent agenda. This is a public participation opportunity. I do want to point out that public participation will also be taken after for the work session specifically. So, miss Dreger, do we have any public participation request for the consent agenda? No, ma'am. We don't. Hearing that, attorney Kate Latour, do you feel compelled to read the dissertation? Not unless the board wants me to.

Madam chair? Yes. Move to approve.

Hold on one second. I want to go to the county manager in case he has anything he'd like to pull.

Thank you, madam chair. But, Chris, there's no changes to the consent agenda.

Look at that. Commissioner Zembower, you are ahead of the game. Commissioners, do you have anything? And now you're up.

Motion to approve constitutional officers item number three and Board of County Commission item four through 10. Second.

Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, passes unanimously. We're now to item 11, which is the work session for the cultural arts funding programs, and this will be presented by Guy Cunha, Economic Development and Tourism Director. Guy, welcome to the podium. I do want to point out that if you do wish to speak publicly, we do need you to fill out a yellow form and turn it into the board clerk right here in the front. If you haven't done that, you will not be asked to speak. Thank you.

Thank you, commissioners. For the record, Guy Cunha, director, economic development and tourism. Prior to our presentation beginning, I just wanted to take a moment to thank all the departments in the past two months that have contributed a lot of background information, a lot of effort to figure out the evolution that we've been on for the past couple years that we've discussed. So, across the board, thank you everyone. And one of the themes of today's presentation that I would like to clarify, as there's been some misinformation out there, The county has never we work with both organizations and the commissioners.

The idea that Seminole County does not support the arts, that is not the case that we've seen dating all the way back to the early two thousands and even nineties. So that is not something that any department has been able to show during that time. So right now, we'll look at the evolution of what the arts program has been throughout the county, and our goal here today is to make sure that we provide some clarity on on processes to move forward across not just our team, but for all organizations and the community. So, the agenda today and thank you for giving me that moment. The agenda today will take a deep dive into the background and the budget.

This is within the past five or so years. We'll look at the points there, and then I will ask the Wayne Dench Performing Arts Center to come up and speak as well. Once they conclude, I will ask the Seminole Cultural Arts Council to come up and speak, and then we will provide three possible options. Of course, these are not the only options that could be discussed today. These are just three possible options regarding some of the themes that we've seen throughout the community and debriefings.

So the background will start on 01/08/2019. Seminole County executes an agreement with United Arts of Central Florida Inc. In the amount of a $137,000 and a $137,282 as part of the FY 2019 budget. The reason we are starting there, that is the last indirect funding agreement for Wayne Dench Performing Arts Center and Seminole Cultural Arts Council. In exhibit A of that agreement, Wayne Dench Performing Arts Center received $51,306 and Seminole Cultural Arts Council received $46,998 Another point regarding that agreement is the multiplier of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research, BIBER, as it's referred to, was also in the exhibit A, establishing a precedent and a theme that you will see moving forward.

A point of clarity there, the United Arts agreement did have a board representative in that agreement appointed by Seminole County. The current agreements that we have do not. So, you'll see just some clarity on the confusion of a board appointment versus a staff liaison. That's there just as a resource for both organizations. So then, 01/28/2020, fiscal 2020, the board passed a resolution establishing section 28.4 of the administrative code creating the Seminole County Arts and Cultural Grant Program in the amounts of $39,939 That was decided back to that Bieber calculation.

So, in FY20, and we will see this at a later slide when we look at the budgets, we go from United Arts to now three different budgets. So now, Wayne Dench Performing Arts Center has a 50,000 budget there. Seminole Cultural Arts Council has 50,000, and now we've created the Seminole County Arts and Culture Grants Program with an initial budget of 39,939. Then fast forward to 10/10/2023, the Board of County Commissioners voted to move, again, as we discussed the evolution of this arts program, and evenly split the Seminole County Arts and Cultural Grant budget between Wayne Dench Performing Arts Center and Seminole Cultural Arts Council. So in fiscal year '24, the 10/10/2023 date falls under fiscal year 2024, Wayne Dentsch, already receiving the 50,000, now receives $23,063 from the removal of the Seminole Cultural Grants program, evenly split between both programs.

So, then, the evolution. And you see the same occur for Seminole Cultural Arts Council. So, that's where you see those two sub bullets there of 50,000 plus the 23,063. That is due to the Bieber calculation tied to population. Then, on 11/19/2024, the board executed an agreement renewal with the Wayne Dench Performing Arts Center in the amount of 50,000 for program operations, with Wayne Dench Performing Arts Center opting out of grants program funding.

This is that 23,000 and change was not in that agreement. 04/08/2025, the board executed an agreement with Seminole Cultural Arts Council in the amount of $73,483 with the grant program funding included. So that's the $50,000 plus the $23,000 there. Along with all this, there were program changes. These are some of the program changes that we're looking at from the overview.

For the grants, United Arts administered the grant funding program in FY 2019. Seminole County Arts Program established in FY 2020. Seminole County Arts grants moved to Wayne Dench Performing Arts Center and Seminole Cultural Arts Council in FY '24. Seminole Cultural Arts Council administered grants the grants funding in FY '24 and '25. Wayne Dench Performing Arts Center administered grants funding in FY '24.

And service management, we had the arts program located under the Parks and Recreation Department up until 2024. And then the 2024 year was the Office of Strategic Initiatives. And when it was brought into my Department of Economic Development and Tourism in 2025, that's when we do, like we do with all agreements, we assign a staff liaison for each agreement that we have. So a staff liaison, and and two of our liaisons are here today as a resource for any questions, any possible quality oversight, we can say. When you're at the board meeting, if they are invited to the board meeting, they're not contractually obligated.

So, we have some organizations that invite and some that don't. So, for this first year of bringing this in house, I can tell you, as our benchmark year, there is a lot of lessons learned, and this is definitely a work session of great value for our department on how to move forward. Now, we'll go to the budget. And Wayne Dench Performing Arts Center, you're on deck. So, the budget, as we discussed, you have fiscal year 'twenty.

That's when we went from the indirect funding of fiscal year 'nineteen with United Arts in house for FY 'twenty, and you see the three budgets there. Budgeted amount, dollars 50,000 for Wayne Dench Performing Arts Center, expended amount, 50,000. Seminole Cultural Arts Council, budgeted amount, 50 and then expended amount 50, and the first year of that expended amount for that Bieber calculation under the Arts Culture grant, 39,939. And then, you fast forward to fiscal year 'twenty four, that's when you see the major change. That although the budget amount was $50,000 because the ARTS grant funding was split in half evenly and moved, that's when you're going to see that expended amount of $73,063 That's the $50,000 plus the $23,000 and change.

You see that amount both at Wayne Dench Performant Arts Center and Seminole Cultural Arts Council, and you see on FY24 the budgeted amount of $46,126 but expended amount at zero as that program moved and was evenly split. And then, as we've discussed in FY '25, Wingedench Performant Arts Center expended the $50,000 as they chose not to pursue the grant funding. And the Seminole Cultural Arts Council expended the 73,483. That increase, again, tied to the Bieber calculation. So 50 plus Bieber.

That calculation tied to population. And for FY '26, the key point here, upon the approved budget is $74,440.8 for Wayne Dench Performing Arts Center and Seminole Cultural Arts Council, dollars 74,440.8. But the key here, as there was some misinformation on this, not a dollar has been expended because there is not an approved agreement for any expenditure. In order for any fund to be expended through our department, a quarterly report needs to be submitted with an invoice. So, there is not a one check at the beginning of the year concept.

I've I've heard that one come through, that I wanna make sure they're quarterly reporting and as written in the agreement, it is split as so. Now, I'd like to ask Wayne Dench Performing Arts Center if they'd like to come up and discuss.

Nope.

Alright.

I am Andrea Howard, the Executive Director of the Wayne Binch Performing Arts Center.

Good morning. I'm Brian Casey, the treasurer for the Arts Center.

We just wanted to offer a our gratitude for how much you all have supported the Wayne Ditch Performing Arts Center over the years. We are greatly appreciative. We have been able to do so much with these funds, especially in cases of implementing our educational programs, such as this year we'll be implementing our field trips, which will introduce the arts to the younger generation so we're not forgotten. But we've been able to do so much, including our summer camps, have been extremely successful, where we've been able to offer scholarships to some of the schools within Seminole County, such as Midway and Meewee and so many others. We've also been able to implement our paid intern programs to some of the high schools and some of the students who've been able to do such fantastic jobs in the marketing area.

And so much more if you just go down the list. But I just wanted to offer a a thank you.

And I I as well just wanna give a quick thank you. We have many partners that we work with at the theater and Seminole County is one of those major partners all support is appreciated and we hope for continued support thank you very much

thank you

Now I'd like to ask

oops, sorry

about that.

Now I'd like to ask Seminole Cultural Arts Council if they'd like to come up and present.

Good morning, Chairman, Commissioners. I am Anthony Airmendia. I am the President of Seminole Cultural Arts Council. Board members, can raise your hand as well. Also, I would like to introduce our Executive Director, Doctor. Deborah Bauer. And if I can please have my treasurer as well, Steve Nelson.

Good morning again, commissioners. My name is Doctor. Deborah Bauer. I'm the Executive Director of the Seminole Cultural Arts Council. Very happy to say I am celebrating my first anniversary on the job, so I'm very happy to be here today to answer questions and provide any information that you may require regarding the operations of SCAC over the last year. We are blessed to have a wonderful legacy of thirty one years of partnership with the BCC. We look forward to continuing that and hope that we can continue to build on that long standing, very productive, very successful relationship.

Morning. Steve Nelson. I'm the treasurer for SCAC, and I'll just reflect back on everything Deborah said and say thank you very much for the continued support.

Thank you.

Alright.

And for the record, the bulleted points were discussion with Wayne Dench Performing Arts Center and Seminole Cultural Arts Council as possible programs and points of emphasis that they would like to discuss. Now, moving on in our agenda

So Yes.

Can you go back to the slide?

Yes. Yeah.

Was that supposed to be discussed in the presentations?

I believe we're going to present the possible options and then open for discussion, but at any point if you'd like to discuss, we can.

No, not our discussion, but the presentations that we just saw, which were full of gratitude and we appreciate that, Both organizations were

asked to speak on their budget.

On their budget. Okay. Thank you. So be prepared for budget questions because we were expecting a budget presentation just in the For the Record category. So

be on call.

Thank you. Keep going.

So as our last slide here, these were and I'm sorry for the small font there. These were, again, three possible options where our team were looking for a direction on which option the board may want to pursue, or it may be an option that is not listed on here. Option one, and I'll read it just because it's small and not everyone can see at this point. Option one, Wayne Dench Performing Arts Center and Seminole Cultural Arts Council for the FY '26, 2025, 2026, in the amount of 50,000 each, as in previous years, these agreements would not include the grants program funding or scope of service for those organizations. Option two, Wayne Dench Performant Arts Center and Seminole Cultural Arts Council for fiscal year 'twenty six in the amount of $74,440.8 That's the approved budget.

These agreements would include grants program funding and the scope of service. And then option three, Wayne Dench Performing Arts Center and Seminole Cultural Arts Council for fiscal year 2026 in the amount of $50,000 each. This agreement does not include the grants program funding or scope of service, but Seminole County will implement a program supporting the arts with the remaining $48,881.6 That is all for the presentation.

Commissioners, I'm going open this up for questions. Yes.

So the reason we're here and the reason we're having this conversation at all is because we were looking at whether the grants funding portion, which the Board of County Commissioners administrated internally, our staff gave out that $40,000 and change directly to grant recipients for several years. When we looked at whether or not the new arrangement of giving that money to the two organizations and having them give out the grant as subrecipients, whether or not that was working the way we intended. Just like we do any other agreement with a nonprofit, we periodically look at how those agreements are fleshing out. In looking at the agreement with Seminole Cultural Arts Council, there was it's a it's a written agreement. There is a very specific intent that that the funding that was for grants from this board was supposed to go to grants.

In looking at the budget that was provided to us by Seminole Cultural Arts Council, that number didn't match the agreement. It was significantly less. So when we see that the funds that the organization says they're going to spend on the agreement that we agreed on don't match, it because it's taxpayer dollars and not our personal piggy bank, it is it is our responsibility to make sure that the agreement is being followed. That's why we're here. Just so we're clear.

Not because Seminole County hates the arts, not because we wanna cut arts funding, but because we have a fiduciary responsibility to make sure the money we give is spent in the way it's intended. So the first budget that we were provided by the Seminole Cultural Arts Council, which I'm assuming is accurate, was a P and L for 2425 that went from October 24 to October to September 2025. When we asked for additional clarification, we were provided an a dish a completely different type of budget form layout that didn't provide the actual, so it's completely useless. So I was hoping that today we were going to have the budget presented that actually showed the budget versus actual so we could make a determination of how the funds have been spent. Does that exist and can that be presented?

So

So do you have a p and l for years prior to 2425? Because that's what we asked for.

That's what I asked for.

Could you please bring that up? And

while he's walking up, I would I'll give my perspective on what was submitted. We have five years' worth of data here of submitted budgets, and I would offer a healthy alternative thought to the value of the budget that doesn't show the actual is that the intention is shown, and the intention is still low. So I'll throw that out there as also a cause for concern that you may want to address.

One of the key things here is if you look at the top, the BCC quarterly contract, there's the 73,000. I'm just rounding some numbers off, if that's okay.

That's fine.

If you look at the actual, it only shows 55 was spent. The big offset is when we run a p and l, it's actual cash that has come it's actual checks that have been cashed. So when we run the p and l, we did the grants, and we I think we we gave almost $28,000 in grants. The reason that that number is low is because we did the grant recipients, and we did the grant presentations at the end of our fiscal year. That's why that number is lower.

Okay. Could you go to page two of three of that budget?

I'm sorry?

Could you please go to page two of three of that budget? Okay. Yep. There you've got it circled for me. So you budgeted that you were going to give out $20,000 in grants, but you gave out in the fiscal year $13,500 So you're saying sometime between October 2025 and whenever the checks were cashed Mhmm. Is is an additional amount.

Right. And I can tell you the total number of grants given out, I think, was about almost $28,000.

Okay. And so the request was for prior years as well. We asked for this for twenty three, twenty four, twenty two, '23. We asked for prior years so so that we could see the history of of the years.

I and that's that's my mistake. I was under the impression that for some reason, we only we only wanted the budget. I didn't run the p and l for all the previous years to show budget versus actual. I can do that.

Okay.

And that was my fault. I misunderstood what was being asked.

Okay. I

wanna make sure I I understand. A p and l does not help me at all. Look at the finances. A cash flow statement would be very helpful, and I think that's what you pretty much have here. I'm not looking for the ours to be profitable. I'm not looking for where their losses may or may not be. But a cash flow statement will tell me the whole scenario, what I need to understand. And Guy, have we not received a good portion of what I would call a cash flow statement that was provided to the commission?

So if what you're describing, sir, is this without the actual column, yes, that was received by both Wayne Dench Performing Arts Center and Seminole County Arts Council and emailed.

Senator Brown.

This is nothing different than what we already have.

The first time I saw this, sir.

The just to clarify Commissioner,

for clarification's sake, the budget side of received. The actual expenditures, which is in a cash accounting methodology is what I heard from you, is new. This is not a statement of cash, though. This is simply what was expended in that time frame on a cash basis. Is that accurate?

Correct. Yes, ma'am.

And so without seeing prior years, what should have happened in this year would have been the tail for the prior year that's missing from here should be in there. So in that $13,500 I would presume it would include checks that would have cashed for the prior year's grants that were delayed past your fiscal year. That would be a statement of cash accounting, and we don't have that.

Okay. I can run those. I can run those.

But because the grants this is not the first year this grant system was in play and the amounts were pretty consistent, we should see the expenditures, assuming timing is close, flowing through the system. Okay.

So I can go back and run, getting to Jay's question, I can go back and run a cash flow analysis if that's what you're asking.

And it should carry forward at the end of the year to the next year so you could track all those finances.

I can do that. Not at the moment, but I can

do that.

Sure.

Yeah. Easy to do.

Thank you.

Are there other questions from other commissioners?

Oh, I not for mister Nelson. Mister Nelson, you

can be seated. Did you have a question for someone else?

For the time period that the county administered the grant funding, I'll call it direct grants versus this model that we're in now is a subrecipient type of grant. We manage and monitor subrecipient grants in a variety of ways throughout this county. During the time that the county managed the grants, the twenty through twenty four ish, right, almost four years, Is is there a way for us to get a rundown of of the dollar amount that was utilized for Seminole County Public Schools grants versus, I would call them, community grants?

Yes. I would connect with our director of parks and recreation, Rick. I do not foresee that being an issue. Rick, would that be an issue? Sorry to put you on the spot here.

Good

morning. For the record, Richard Durner, Director of Parks and Recreation, formerly Leisure Services. So, we do have an expenditure we've gone through the system and pulled those out based on the actuals that were given during that amount of time. Regarding the breakdown between the different recipients and whether or not they were connected, whether they program or they were with the school district, whatever. We just have the data, the pure data at this point and we have it delineated between the two.

Okay. The reason I asked is because our agreement with SCAC specifies $5,000 for art and public play specifies that of the 20 some odd, 30 some odd thousand dollars that we're providing them, 5,000 is supposed to be used for art in public places and the remainder is supposed to be used for subrecipient grants. And so I've noticed, it's noticeable, that the majority of communication we've been receiving concerned about any change in the way these funds are delivered is from our Seminole County Public Schools. And so it prompted me to ask what has changed with arts funding in Seminole County Public Schools. Because when I was on the school board, we budgeted for arts in our schools, and Seminole County Public Schools Foundation gave a considerable amount of funding to the arts.

I was concerned that maybe something, a paradigm had shifted in the universe, that now there is this expectation that it's the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners who's responsible for funding grants and art programming in our schools, which I think is wonderful. I think it's great. Arts in our schools is fabulous. That's why when I was a school board member, always voted to fund it. However, the reason why I'm asking is because that concerned me.

What I found, Mr. Cunha was kind enough to reach out, arts funding in the schools has remained level since 2022. So the school district has not cut funding. Is they have an opportunity to apply for grants through the Seminole County Foundation for Public Schools. The chairman of the school board is here.

So I would like to have, and I'm sure we will hear during public comment, an explanation of why there is the perception that these funds are public schools, because I would imagine that we have homeschooling families and families who send their children to charter schools and private schools that would also like to have access to arts funding from their tax dollars, not just via the public schools. Not that they shouldn't have it, but that it would be an additional. Just so you can kind of know where my brain is and why I was trying to understand the panic.

And I don't know if this helps at all, but during the time that the county was implementing the grants program, the direct grants program, to use the terminology from today, each of these was for and was provided to a separate nonprofit. So we dealt with directly nonprofits which may or may not have offered programs within the school or a part of a school program, but they were all separately run nonprofits with their own individual LLCs and so forth.

Understood. Okay, great. Thank you.

Commissioner Zinbauer?

I'm not sure whether this is going to be a gee question, and maybe multiple peoples need to respond to this. One of my question was how much is the school board actually funding the arts?

So at this point, we do not have a direct We can receive a direct number from the school board. Right now, I I would I would say it's hearsay. We'll hold that out. We'll get a direct funding, but for clarity, the foundation does not fund this program.

Sure.

It has not funded this program either.

Yes. I'm talking

about arts

in general.

But define this program.

So when I say that, I'm just saying the Seminole County Arts Culture grant program. There were has never been funding or partnership funding coming in Right. Outside funding. Yes.

What about any of cities? Are you aware of any of the cities

funding? I would say not not that we are aware of any outside funding from the cities.

To us?

To us. Yes. To the, to be specific, to the Seminole County Arts Culture Grant.

Has anybody ever thought about collaborating with both the school board and the cities and understand understand that that the the grant program could be grown to a point that may be more effective for our community?

That we have not explored currently.

Okay. Was the funding prior to 2019? I noticed we cut it off in 2020 there. Okay. And as I recall being on this this board and one of the reasons we cut that is the money we were giving was being spent in a different county. Yeah. Right. Regionally, because it was a regionally regional operator that was handling the money at that point.

So in fiscal year twenty eighteen, it was a $137,282.

And at one time, wasn't it growing almost close to $200,000 at some point prior to that?

Yes, dating all the way back to fiscal year two thousand and six, the funding that we're seeing here did eclipse 200,000.

And then the crash happened in seveneight?

And there was yes. And then there was no funding for fiscal year July '9, nor '10, even though there was a budgeted amount of 120,000, but there is zero expended.

So has anybody run the calculation on the BBR had we continued to fund the arts at the level we were before the Great Depression, which we are now almost twenty years past, what those numbers would be in today's dollars?

I can take a look at that, sir, and follow-up with that calculation of what our population would have to be through Bieber.

That'd be great. Thank you. That's all I have for now.

Commissioner Zambara, number I was given for the foundation was a $120,000 that the foundation gives to arts in their schools.

I just I just think if we're trying to serve the community as a whole, it would be wise that we collaborate with our community partners. And if we can make those dollars go much further, if we could possibly find a method to do that to collaborate, may be beneficial in the long run.

Any comments, Commissioner DeLaury or Commissioner Constantine?

Thank you, madam chair. Just a little more background, Guy. Yes. Some of the organizations that we talked about that we used to be a part of called United Arts. And can you expound on that? And what the dollar figure was that this board gave to United Arts and how it was distributed and carries a little more history about when we actually stopped being a part of United Arts? Because that's really where this all started from.

So during our deep dive going all the way back into the early two thousands through our budget amount and expended amount. We have 2,005 being one of the earliest times. We also have an agreement based on an event with United Arts dating back to, I believe it was 1993. 2005, we have an expended amount of 180,745. Then 2006 is when we discussed that amount being above $200,000 That is $315,500.25 And then during the time of the recession, there is not any budgeted or expended amount in 02/2029.

And then fiscal year ten, there is a budgeted amount of 120,000, but there is not an expended amount. And then after 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 1718, 2019, it was a fluctuation of as low as $126,819 and as high as a $137,282.

Thank you. Commissioner Constantine?

Nothing to say.

Nothing say. I wanna bring us back to today's conversation and, prior to public comment, just bring up some of the concerns that I have. One of the major concerns that I heard that I did not realize until today's presentation was that we're expending public dollars, and one of the organizations invites us to a meeting and the other doesn't. That's not acceptable, so that needs to be fixed, whichever of you that is. From my perspective, collaborating countywide on this, I think, is what we're attempting to do.

I think arts programs in the cities are arts programs in the cities that are probably more profound than what we're doing. And attempting to roll that up might actually cause that to be diluted and the local focus to be changed. So I I don't necessarily wanna go down that path. I don't I'll just say

it out loud. I don't

like when Tallahassee does it to us. I don't wanna do it to the city. So by my recollection, we ended up with this new distribution model. I'm gonna use the dirty word, four letter word, tuba. Do you all remember the conversation about the TUBA? It was very early in my tenure.

I was going bring that up late.

And we were purchasing a specific TUBA for a specific school. And we have a former school board member and a former chair, told twice, of the foundation, and we know that there are funds for those that are expended at the local level through the school district. And it was the same group coming back year after year, and that didn't feel right. So we moved this to a new methodology, and it seems like we're back at that. But I just want to do some math, and this is where I get really stuck.

And that is, and this is for SCAC, I have a little document up here called budget snippets, and it is handwritten in pink, which is never a good sign when I'm handwriting in pink. But if I look at the grants from year 2021 to the year 2425, the total expenditure is $53,000. This isn't a cash flow problem because this is one year was eight, one year was 10, one year was 10, one year was 12, one year was 13. That is taken precisely out of the document that we were given. And it's not an expenditure, it's a budget, which comes back to my comment about the intention through the budget was only to spend this much, yet the awards seemed to be higher.

Our intentions were different than the execution, at least from the documents. So as we're going through public comment, I would offer this thought that we do want to support the arts. What I think is happening is that we expect the funds that we're giving to be expended in the arts, in the grants, in the fashion that we think they were supposed to be expended, and we're struggling to understand that through the documents we're given. And that doesn't necessarily mean that it's not happening, but with what we have, we can't prove it, and it's tax dollar money, and proving it is a requirement. So with that, hearing nothing further from the commission, Well, spoke too soon. Commissioner Zebauer.

And this may be for SCAC, whoever wants to respond. Was some of that funding used for salaries?

Deborah Bauer, executive director, SCAC. Yes. Part of our operating budget that has gone back many, many years, $50,000 has been a part of our operating budget. Salary for the executive director has been a part of that for I can't even tell you how many of the thirty one years. I think I can provide some other clarity, though, that I'd like to offer in regards to the grant and budget.

You go there, you've answered Can my you run the operation otherwise No. Without an executive director or some other way? I mean, I understand most are volunteers

Correct.

Which we're very grateful for in this community. But can you run the organization without having somebody who's ultimately responsible to run it that has to draw payroll?

No. And here's the answer why. We are a primary volunteer based organization. Just in 2025 and again, I can only speak to how long I have been executive director since January 2025, in the last year. I began tracking our volunteer hours.

We have a volunteer base of about 50 regular volunteers that input over two thousand hours of service to a value of about $28,000 last year. I am the only employee. We downsized previously as CAC had had an executive director and a program assistant because of the difficulty of everything that has gone up when it comes to minimum wage, when it comes to insurance requirements, everything that you can imagine that you all have talked about before. It was not we were not able to keep that second position. And so in effect, I am the person who does everything from executive direct to fundraise to even to save money.

We canceled a previous vendor contract that we had with an IT company, and so I am the IT person for SCAC. So if we do not have an executive director doing all of that, and let's just say theoretically we have great volunteers, many of which are here today, let's say we had volunteers willing to take that over. At the end of the day, what it takes to run a council that is not advisory in its primary capacity. We have operational responsibilities that, for example, one of the biggest things that we have to maintain is when we're administering not just one, but two grant programs, which we have been doing since 2024, you know, I I look at October 2023 as both a good day and bad day for SAIC because we weren't even here when you all decided to gift us with the additional grant the responsibility of the grant funding. We didn't ask for it, but when you offered us the opportunity because and I I took the liberty because there was a quote that really stuck with me that day, and it said, United Arts Day in our United Arts Days, the Seminole Cultural Arts and Wayne Dench had their finger on the pulse of the arts community and were the people who were doing exactly what we've identified as being the value criteria for grants.

They already have the staff and the volunteers and the process in place. And so we decided to rise up to meet that need that you, as commissioners, said you needed us to fulfill. So in effect, even though we were already through in 2024 because our grant cycle runs from summer to fall, which and that has subsequently been changed because I realized we were not working as effectively as we needed to when it came to funds that are budgeted, need to be expended, and need to be cashed out in the same fiscal year they're put. And that has been a change that has been made, but we couldn't do it fast enough for when the money was given in fiscal year 'twenty four, 'twenty five or 'twenty five, 'twenty six. We have had this ability to go out, do what you've asked us to do, and there are responsibilities that come with that that I'm sure you all, if you were running a business, wouldn't want to trust a volunteer necessarily, not that there aren't nice people out there, but when it comes to compliance, when it comes to reporting, when it comes to the legal responsibility for upkeeping the very grant program that you all said on 10/10/2023 was spending too many staff hours on small dollar grants.

All of that is something that our volunteers are not capable of doing. So if we do not have someone in the driver's seat that is aware of how these things go, then no, we're going to have to close. And so I think that's where, at the end of the day, when there's this question of what can SCAC do going forward, if there's not an executive director, you will probably see it flounder for a few months, and then it will close because the ship needs a captain. Thank

you. Yes.

So I don't want to conflate two different things, which I think is happening because we go from you gave us grant money that we didn't really ask for. We were operating prior to that. You gave us grant money, and with that comes responsibility. We're not really sure we wanted that. Like, Maybe it's a gift we didn't want.

We all get those. Going back to the relationship that we had prior of giving you the $50,000 as Wayne Dench has done, which is like, thanks, but no thanks for the grant funding. We'll keep the $50,000 I'm trying to understand why that would cause you to close if we just bring those grant funds back in house, because they weren't meant to fund operational overhead. They were meant to be distributed as grants. So I'm having a hard time matching if we because no one's ever talked about touching the $50,000 principal.

We're talking about the grant funding. So how does removing the grant funding or putting more oversight on the grant funding cause you to close?

So Commissioner, I would say, first of all, we don't have any trouble continuing to do what you are asking us to do. The contract is there to protect you, to protect the taxpayer dollars, it's there to protect SCAC. We have, at least again, I cannot speak before my tenure in 2025, but in the past year, we have made good faith efforts to comply with everything that you all have asked us to meet in the contract. That is why we actually, because of our fundraising efforts, were able to award slightly more than was required for grants. And so where does the conflation of the grant where is the I think if I'm understanding you correctly, but please correct me if I'm wrong, where is the connection between the grants and our operating budget?

It's the executive director. And so if you don't have one, the other won't work, at least from SCAC's side. If you take if you you if we have the grant funding, that is a part of the responsibility of the it's not the sole responsibility, but it's a part of the responsibility of the executive director. So if you are to remove the operating budget, which goes towards payroll, if because I know that had been mentioned to us.

Let let me make sure we're really clear because I've seen a lot of misinformation about this conversation in my email, which has been a result of some social media posts Sure. That are wholly inaccurate. We are not talking about touching your base budget of $50,000 We are talking about

I'm very brave

to hear that. Well, we said it. You were here in the room when we said it at the last board meeting. So there's probably some repair work to do relationally, I would imagine, between the two organizations. Well, think we And can I Ms? Bauer, chair has the floor. I think what we have to understand is if the added burden of managing the grants is causing you to take time away from your responsibilities of fundraising, which would then help you be able to do more work and give out more more money, maybe that's something the Board needs to consider. It wasn't one of the options on the table necessarily, but I think we have all options on the table at this point.

So, okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Alright. I think we're to the point of going to public comment. I'll ask county attorney Latour to read the requirements of public comment, and what I am going to do is ask you to line up so that we're moving this along rather quickly. These

rules will apply to this work session and the any public comment on the other two work sessions as well. 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 in an emergency or ministerial matter 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 at her sole discretion when appropriate. Public comments on quasi judicial or other public hearing items will occur during the board's consideration of those items this afternoon, and 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.

Madam Chair. Thank you. Ms. Stregor, how many speakers do we have for this topic? 13 speakers. 13 speakers. And who are the first three?

Bill Hyde, James Brenlinger, and Theresa Cruz.

If you three would line up, that would be fabulous. I'll give a little bit of the rules of the road. We are going to allow you three minutes each. We are not looking for redundant conversations, so I do ask that you don't repeat what someone else has said. And that helps us to make this a more meaningful conversation. It is very difficult to listen to the same thing over and over again and weed through what new fact came to the table. So please do focus on the new things so that we can take everything into consideration that you wish us to do. So, mister Hyde, you are first up.

Thank you, commissioners. My name is Bill Hyde. I live at 2379 Audley Street in Oviedo. Well, I guess I'm the one that kicked the hornet's nest. And I didn't intend to speak today, but I wanted to make sure that everybody could actually see me and hear what my perspective really is and what it was.

I wanna roll back to the last meeting. It's very important that that the last meeting where I kicked the hornet's nest, only arts council was being discussed at that time. It was not the performing arts center. But, in the meantime, a member of the performing arts center reached out to me talking about, you know, their funding and had a very meaningful meeting And I actually decided after that meeting that I would actually buy some tickets to the upcoming Cab Calloway Blues Brothers.

Oh, yeah.

Before he leaves.

Yeah. No. It's it's for real. I I I keep my promises. That's not where where my the comments about me or whatever come from.

It comes strictly from what I read on the agenda regarding the arts the Arts Council. So you let me read the agendas, I try to get the background, and what I read was is that there is x amount of thousands of dollars budgeted for the Arts Council, and there's x amount that was was gonna be allocated for salaries. So my con my thing is I just don't see where a group that has a budget that size needs a full essentially, a part time commission or part time county salary to run. I'm pretty familiar with a couple of five zero one c three and nonprofits that have budgets that are larger than the Arts Council and are run by entirely by volunteers. They do all kinds of community work.

They do they get their their stuff done, and they don't have a paid staff of any kind. So that's what brings the question to me is, really, does the Arts Council need a paid professional with the size of the budget that it's had. That's that's my that's my only thing. I didn't didn't know all these details about the convoluted history and the budgets and stuff. But you know what?

I'm really glad to hear the commission getting into the details because it is my tax money. I'm probably the only one in this room, other than the commission and staff, that went to every budget and millage hearing. And I listened to you guys and you said you couldn't cut anything when I picked on something I thought you might be able to cut. Man, made the newspapers. Thank you very much.

Thank you, mister Hyde. Next, and if you would state your name and address for the record.

My name is Theresa Cruz. I reside at 5626 Winter Brook Way. That's in Winter Park, Florida 32792. As vice president of the Sterling Park PTA, I represent our families, teachers, and students. The arts are not a luxury. They are not expendable. They are a foundational part of a complete education. Arts program support engagement, emotional regulation, communication, and critical thinking skills every child needs regardless of their future paths. At a recent meeting, I heard someone say the arts don't pay the bills and they don't put food on the table. That statement ignores reality.

The homes we live in were imagined before they were built. The clothes we wear were designed before they were sold. The books we read, the music we stream, and the movies we watch all employ people whose livelihoods depend on creativity. The arts already pay the bills they always have. From a school wide perspective, defunding the arts does not save money. It shifts costs into disengagement, behavioral issues, and students who feel disconnected from school. Defunding the arts does not strengthen education. It narrows it. I'm a mom of four incredible kids, each wired differently and each needing creativity in their own way. My oldest Izzy is a junior in college who grew up buried in books, reading shapes how she thinks, questions, understands the world.

My daughter Gabby, a sixth grader at Tuscaloosa, listens to the artists and creators she trusts, sometimes more than any authority figure. My son, Owen, is a second grader at Sterling Park. He comes alive performing Michael Jackson's famous Billie Jean, where confidence replaces fear. And then there is Ali. A fourth I'm gonna read this because this gets emotional. A fourth grader at Sterling Park, Ali is my most reserved child. She doesn't make friends easily, not because she doesn't want connection, but because she feels things deeply. And it takes time learning to trust the world around her. She puts enormous pressure on herself to get everything right every time. Driving is where that pressure lives.

It's where there's no single right answer, no test to pass, just expression. It's how she communicates when words fall short. It's where she feels safe, confident, and understood. When you defund the arts, children like Ally don't just lose a class. They lose their voice. They lose their safe place. They lose the one space where they feel capable and accepted exactly as they are. When we cut the arts, we are not trimming a budget. We are deciding whose children matter. We are telling the quiet child to be quieter, the creative child to fit into a smaller box.

In the struggling child, the way they cope with the world is expendable. As a PTA leader, I will always fight for what strengthens our school. As a mother, I will not be silent with programs that keep children connected, grounded, and hopeful are treated as optional. This decision will echo far beyond the spreadsheet and the cost of everything the cost of getting it wrong is one we will all share. Thank you.

Thank you. I I got it. I just wanna point out that number one, would you please be seated, we we are not the school board. We do not have authority over the school board's budget, and I will defend the school board in that they do everything they possibly can to have the AAA experience, and one of those A's is arts. I will also say that, as Commissioner Lockhart said, this is not a question of us figuring out how to defund the arts.

It is actually, in fact, a question of us figuring out how to fund the arts appropriately so that every single dollar that we fund goes to arts. And that's where we are. So I really, for public comment purposes, want to make sure that you understand that. This isn't about funding the arts. It's about funding the arts and making sure that the representation of dollars that end up in the hands of someone that's actually going to do something with it in the arts is more likely than it going into an administrative cost. With that, I'll ask you to for your name for the record.

I'm James Brenlinger. I'm a teacher at Oviedo High School. I've been overjoyed to be a Seminole County teacher since 1997. I actually

was We are overjoyed to have you as an overjoyed teacher. Let me just say that.

Early in my career at Lake Howe, we had a really rainy day and so everyone had to eat inside the cafeteria and the principal was standing near. I was standing and he said, take a minute and look around. He said, this is our actual demographic at our school. He said, if you look at your classroom, the demographic should match. He said, if it doesn't, you have work to do because if the arts are for everybody, then we should be seeing all races, we should be seeing all achievement levels. Students who can't afford to pay to go on the district field trip or or whatever we're doing should have a space. Autistic students should have a space and so on. And that was the most Don Smith had ever said to me before or after.

But it stuck with

me and I remember that with everything that I do. When I was asked to serve on Seminole Cultural Arts Council's grant board, I've kept that in mind as I looked through the grant proposals and it did come up with the schools getting money sometimes from these grants. I got a foundation grant this year at Oviedo for we're doing a departmental project on the Great Gatsby. That money is still there. When we look at grant propositions, one of them this year, this is anecdotal, but it was from Lake Howe, who are working without an auditorium for two years.

It's being rebuilt. You can't make money as a theater teacher selling tickets if you don't have a space to sell them. So for them to be able to have a big arts event this year, it did take some special funding. I thought that was a really good reason to say yes on that one. There is city funding, there is school board funding.

I was looking at the ones where things are going to fall through the cracks. Not to go through every one that we approved this year, but there are really cool, like there's the blues one, letting elementary school kids experience music from a different culture basically. Anything that we could do to make sure those cracks are being filled in so that kind of everyone in the cafeteria is being represented, I think is so important. I don't know much about the budgeting and, you know, the charts and stuff like that. I do know that the process that we used to go through all of those grant proposals this year that I've been on it, was very thoughtful and I think that the work that's being represented there, it might not get funded any other way if we're not doing it.

So thank you for the chance to speak today. It is club picture day in Oviedo. I'm going

to get back to you.

Thank you.

Very important. All right, next speaker. Please call three.

Marsha Dabrowski, Kathryn Fabian, and Shelby Maddox.

Name and address for the record, please.

Marsha Dabrowski, 3995 Campfire Way in Casselberry. Thank you for this opportunity. And, the last time I spoke to you guys, it was about Deer Park and, going for that. I like to speak about things that really impact human beings. And I thank you for promoting the arts and doing what you're doing.

And I thank all the people here that are with the arts. I remember Castleberry, when I first came, we only had an art house. And the art the sculpture garden, everything there is just beautiful. But I have a quote, living with art makes life better. And it's scientifically proven that it actually enhances our life. And you can look it up. And it's not only the consuming of art, the galleries, the museums, it's also the practicing of art. I'm a twenty five year retired art teacher. I also taught in Creology School of Art. I'm also a practicing artist since the year 2000.

I have rent, I have my supplies, so it's very hard for a budget, and I really really honor these people that are doing that. You know, children, they need art. Humans need art. I mean, we see the cave paintings in Indonesia, 67,800 years old, Spain, France. And children need it.

I mean, I see my niece. She's drawing on her body with magic markers, and thank God they're not Sharpies. So I just want to impact that. I know you're doing, I know you have to deal with budgets, but just keep remembering how much we need that in humanity, because the stress levels now are really high, and art takes away cortisol in our brain, and we really need to have it. So whatever you can do when you're looking at those budgets, I I really encourage you to do that, and thank you so much again.

Thank you for your comments. Next.

Good morning. My name is Catherine Fabian. I live at 7615 Village Green Drive, Winter Park, Florida 32792. First, I'd like to thank you all for your past and current support of the arts in Seminole County. Professionally, worked for the Orlando Ballet for almost seventeen years, and we are a past recipient of Seminole County Arts funding when we had we still do have programming in the community here in Seminole County.

So I thank you for that support. As someone who's devoted my career to the arts, I've witnessed firsthand how organizations like the Cultural Arts Council and the organizations it supports can transform lives and strengthen communities. When I read the Orlando Sentinel article yesterday in which a fellow resident claimed that the arts provide no tangible benefits to Seminole County residents, I felt the need to respond, not just as an artist, but as someone who knows the evidence. That claim is false. The arts aren't merely entertainment.

When a community invests in the arts, they become an essential infrastructure that delivers concrete economic, educational, and social returns to our county. Economically, the arts are a significant driver for Seminole County. Cultural organizations and events attract visitors who spend money at our restaurants, hotels, and retail stores, generating tax revenue. A vibrant art scene also makes us more attractive to businesses and skilled workers who value cultural amenities in the communities in which they reside. As an arts administrator, I can attest that this field provides meaningful career opportunities and sustains working artists, educators, technicians, administrators, and countless others.

The creative economy is real, and it thrives when communities invest in it. Educationally, arts programs in schools, after schools, in the community develop the critical thinking, creativity, resiliency, and problem solving skills that are essential for today's workforce. Students engaged in the arts perform better academically and develop greater confidence. The Arts Council's programs reach thousands of youth annually, providing experiences many families couldn't otherwise afford. As the parent of an SCPS middle school saxophonist and an elementary school aged dancer, I see his impact in my home daily.

The arts give my children tools for self expression, confidence to take risks, and ability to work collaboratively, skills that will serve them throughout their lives. For our community, the arts bring people together across differences of age, background, and perspective. The they foster social cohesion and civic engagement, provide positive outlets for youth, enriching activities for seniors, and create spaces where neighbors become friends and build community pride. In an increasingly fragmented world, the arts create the irreplaceable shared experiences that bind us together. The Seminole Cultural Arts Council effectively leverages public investment, partnering with numerous organizations and volunteers to maximize impact across our county.

Supporting the Arts Council is an investment in economic vitality, educational excellence, and community strength, making Seminole County a more desirable place to live, work, and raise families. Thank you.

Thank you. As the next speaker comes up, Ms. Dreger, can you call the next three, please?

Kimberly McHugh, Sally Morgan, and Harold Morgan.

Thank you. Name and address for the record.

Good morning. My name is Shelby Maddox. I'm at 627 Magnolia Drive in Maitland Seminole County, Maitland. Hello. My name is Shelby Maddox. I am the k through 12 visual arts specialist for Seminole County Public Schools. I've been in this role only a year now, and prior to that, I was a middle school art teacher. Visual arts play a crucial role in our public school setting, offering students a unique avenue for self expression, creativity, and critical thinking. Through engaging in visual arts, students develop essential life skills such as problem solving, collaboration, and resiliency. Visual arts education can boost academic performance by improving focus, motivation, and cognitive abilities.

By nurturing creativity and innovation, visual arts courses prepare students to navigate and contribute to an increasingly complex and visually oriented world. I first met Doctor. Bauer soon after she joined SCAC, and from the start, she was eager to learn how SCAC could support arts education in Seminole County Schools. At the beginning of this school year, SCAC provided every teacher with a supply kit brimming with specialty supplies that teacher don't always have available for students, such as gel pens, metallic paints, unique glazes, but also there were the everyday items like pencils, pens, and permanent markers, the things that teachers never have enough of. At one of our middle schools, the art teacher let students use the metallic and shimmery paints to create a collaborative art project.

The teacher was so grateful for the supplies that she received because they elevated the finished piece and they helped it stand out. These are supplies that students and teachers don't always have access to. If you're active in the Central Florida Arts community, then you're aware that the annual Maitland Arts Festival was canceled this year this past year. This show was instrumental in providing a platform to showcase our high school students' talents, especially for our three d artists. With the new Florida Seal of Fine Arts, a distinction on students' high school diplomas, it was imperative that we replace this opportunity and provided an event to recognize our students and help them meet the requirements for the seal.

SCAC stepped in to make sure that students didn't lose that opportunity. In October, the city of Casselberry hosted the first Seminole County Student Art Showcase at Lake Concord Park. This event benefited greatly by the contributions of SCAC. Not only did they provide awards and certificates for all of our students, they were instrumental in securing the location and making the event a success. As you know, building a strong partnership takes time.

In a few short months, I have been working with SCAC, two things are true. Students have had access to more supplies, and had it not been for SCAC, they may have had one less chance to exhibit their work and earn the Seal of Fine Arts on their diploma. I look forward to continuing to fostering our relationship with our community partners to support future artists and leaders in our community.

Thank you. Next. Name and address for the record, please.

Madam chair, if I could Yes. Just momentarily. So since the chairman of the school board is here and so many of these comments relate to funding arts in schools, I would highly recommend that those of you who have interest in arts in public schools reach out to your school board and your superintendent. We are not them. Thank you.

Kember McHugh, 2520 Dakota Trail from Park, Florida. I wanna know that I hear you. I hear that you that the arts matter to the board members, and I appreciate that. I am the president of Lake Howe High School PTSA. That's the Parent Teacher Student Association.

We are not for we are not for profit four zero one c three. We do not receive funding from Seminole County Public Schools. We are not of of able to apply for grants through the foundation. The $5,000 funding that was a that we got from the Seminole Culture Arts Council allowed us to to host our Winter Art Festival, which included yes, it had student performances, student artwork, but it also was a free public event open to the community where we had over a thousand attendees. These were neighbors.

These were homeschool kids. It was open to anybody and everyone. And the event was well received, and it was a fun day for all. And, you know, in the world we live in with the strife and stress and anxiety, art is something that crosses political boundaries and religion, whatever, you know, the conflicts we have as a society. Everybody loves art, music, and the joy it brings.

I am concerned about the continued talk about, you know, that a lot of the emails you got were from school members. A lot of them were from PTSA members. And I just want to make that point very clear that PTSA does not get any funding from similar county public schools. We do a lot of our own fundraising, but a lot of the events we put on a school are because of grant funding and support such as that what we got from SCAC. Without that type of funding, these events would not take place. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Good morning, commissioners. I'm Sally Morgan. I've lived in Seminole County thirty seven happy years, and I appreciate the service that you give our wonderful county. Let's just take the alphabet. A, art. Art is beauty. Art is creative and community building. Art develops our senses. E, art enlivens, empowers, encourages, enriches. It gives us enlightenment, and it exposes our souls.

F, art's fun. G, art is good for our heart, and it fills our heart with hope. I, art is imaginative and inclusive. J, art is joyful and kind. It kindles us.

Art is love, and it lingers in our memories and mind, and it is even good and a necessity for all of our mental health. Art is a mirror. It helps us see ourselves, and art gives us new ways to see things, and art needs our support. And I wanna thank the people in this room and you too. We need to work together, and I think all of us are working for the good of our community.

Art needs our support. That's why I'm here, and I think that's why all of us are here. Let's give ourselves a round of applause. O offers us opportunity for all our citizens. Art does that. P, art takes practice. It's powerful. It gives us perspective and a time to pause and a time to ponder. Art. Well, cue art sequencessible jewel to me, the apex of our existence.

We are born to create. R, art is renewing. It teaches resiliency. S, strengthens our skill building and stimulates our intellect. It's soul stirring. Why do we give standing ovations and awards and ribbons and trophies? T, art teaches us togetherness and is therapeutic. U unifies and broadens our understanding. V art takes valiant effort. It's visual, visceral.

It causes us to feel. W wise and wonderful. Wonderful, it widens our horizons. X is an exacting science. Y art is yours, mine and ours, and zestful. Let's keep that zest in our wonderful, thriving Seminole County. Thank you. Well done.

That was amazing. I'm going to admit so we're going to call the next three, but I'm going to admit that you freaked me out a little bit that you were gonna go through 26 letters. So hats off to you. Well done. I'm Harold Morgan. We're gonna call the next three just so we can keep the line line and moving.

Forward,

lady. Chelsea Smith, Steven Summers, and Steven Young. There you go.

You're

up. I'm Harold Morgan, 526 East Highland Street, and I can't improve on what my wife did.

You you should've you should've gone before her, my friend.

There's a good husband.

Thank you. Come in.

Thank you.

Hello. Good morning, commissioners. Good morning, everyone. My name is Chelsea Smith. I'm at 581 Queens Mears Circle in Castlebury, Florida, and I support the Seminole County Cultural Arts Funding.

My name is Chelsea Smith. I was born and raised in Seminole County, and I am a proud graduate of our public schools and universities, Sterling Park Elementary, South Seminole Middle School, and Lake Howell High School as a Dorley Russell Scholar. I later graduated from Seminole State College and the University of Central Florida with a degree in fine art. Since 2017, I've been a Seminole County business owner running a successful fine art business, artbychelsea.com,llc. My work has received regional and national recognition, including Festival Show at the Sanford Saint George River Festival of the Arts, Lake Mary Heathrow Festival Of The Arts, and Orlando Fiesta in the Park.

I was also the post artist for the Mount Dore Festival of the Arts and Dunedin Art Harvest. I was featured on the NPR StoryCorps, and I've taught master classes at Stetson University as a part of the Rembrandt exhibition featured on News thirteen with Alison Walker. I'm here today as a real new example of the return on investment from SEAC and Seminole County student investment. It makes sound fiscal sense. I respectfully ask for your consideration of full funding for SAIC in 2026.

SAIC has a proven track record of developing students into working creative professionals who contribute to our local economy and community. I am only one of many who have benefited from the support, and continued investment ensures Seminole County remains a place where creative talent can grow, stay, and succeed. Thank you for your time and support.

Thank you. Miss Smith, what is your medium?

I do copper plate etchings.

Wonderful. Mhmm.

Very cool.

Look forward to it at the next Thank

you. Thank you so much.

Now I'd be wildly impressed if you sing this.

Don't think I have a song prepared today, but sorry. Thank you. I'm Stephen Summers. I live at 1001 East Marks Street in Orlando, Florida, 32803. So I live down the road in Orlando.

Thank you for letting me come in today. But I have worked for thirty one years at Seminole State College, so my professional life has been in Seminole County. So, good morning Chair Her, commissioners, and guests. I have a lot of remarks that I'm not gonna say because so many of the previous speakers have eloquently said what I might have said, but I do want to just comment a little bit about the Seminole Cultural Arts Council and the unique place that that organization has in our county. Because it is a county wide organization, it looks things at things in a holistic way and we have many wonderful programs in our individual cities, but the county is amazing.

And I just want to say Seminole County has a vibrant arts scene. The mission of Seminole Cultural Arts Council is to advocate for amplify amplify, and financially support arts programming across the county. That is exactly what it does. SCAC grants facilitate programming that otherwise could not or might not happen, and those are sometimes in those gaps that different programs might fall through. It also elevates the arts specifically in Seminole County by naming our Seminole County Artist of the Year and through its annual Heart of the Arts Award presented at the annual fundraiser, the Taste of the Arts Gala, a week from Saturday everyone, so mark your calendar.

This wonderful event brings the community together, provides a showcase for artists and performers and on a personal note, has become a cherished opportunity for students from my employer, Seminole State, to perform, support their community, and gain real world experience. And the previous speaker mentioned a little bit about that important work of Seminole Cultural Arts Council. We all know that young people engaged in the arts perform better academically, they have higher attendance rates, but adults that remain connected to the arts throughout their lives, whether as participants in the arts or as patrons, feel more connected to their communities, less isolated, and live happier and healthier lives. The Seminole Cultural Arts Council is not a big operation. It has one part time administrator and a volunteer board like me.

It operates on a very modest budget. But that investment that you make in our community and that means the whole county through its grants, through the grants SCAC administers, supporting our kids, our high school and college students, musicians, actors, dancers, all of it, it brings so much back more back in return. It means a lot to be able to say that because we were supported by our county. So for these reasons, I do very humbly ask that you continue funding this important organization, Seminole Cultural Arts Council, as you have for these many years. Thank you.

Thank you. Dominique, would you name the next three? Thank you so much.

The final speaker is Lillian Carroll. Awesome.

Bring it all home for us, sir.

I'll do my best. Lillian's left. You. I'm sorry. Oh, well, she

has a to bringing it home for us.

I'll I'll do my best. I'm Steven Young. I'm at I'm at 118 Calabria Springs Cove in Sanford, Florida. Good morning, commissioners. Before we talk about art, I wanna talk briefly about impact. Mhmm. This year alone, 662 students from 36 elementary, middle, and high schools across Seminole County participated in the National PTA Reflections Program. 391 works advanced to the county level recognition, and 81 of those moved on to the state level, placing Seminole County among the strongest art participants in Florida. Last year, one out of every three state winners came from our county. Those numbers matter because behind every number is a student who found their voice.

My name is Steven Young, president of Seminole County Council PTA, and I'm honored to speak today on behalf of the Seminole County Council PTA. At National PTA, we believe that arts, music, literature, dance, drama, and visual arts are not extras. They are central to learning. When the arts are integrated into education, students gain confidence, develop critical thinking skills, and discover where they belong. We see this through the national PTA reflections program, a nationwide initiative that uses film, photography, visual art, music, dance, and literature to help pre k through 12 students express ideas that matter to them.

This year's theme is I belong. By emphasizing interpretation over technical skill, the program elevates student voice and invites participation from students who might otherwise go unheard. I'm here today because Seminole County PTA is a proud grant recipient of funding from the Seminole Cultural Arts Council, Again, an organization this commission has faithfully supported. Seminole Cultural Arts Council funding doesn't just support art programs in theory, it directly supports students, families, and schools right here in Seminole County. The arts are clearly alive in Seminole County.

Our request is that you continue your history of support for the Seminole Cultural Arts Council so that nonprofit community organ organizations like ours can continue to thrive with financial resources needed to create impact. We're putting our grant money to use. An evening on March 4 this year, we will be bringing our county's young artists and their proud families together at the SCCPTA Reflections Awards celebration. Each of you are invited to join us at Lyman High School Auditorium at 06:30PM to see our students shine in the spotlight. The students' artwork will be displayed in the lobby, and you'll also be treated to student performances on stage.

The return on this county investment isn't abstract. It's visible in every student who crosses that stage knowing that they belong because their community chose to support the arts. We hope to see you there, and thank you, commissioners, for your continued support. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening. Good good morning. My name is Lillian Castleberry Carroll. I stay my house is at 171 Quail Pond Circle in Castleberry, and I'm here to speak in favor of the one question that hasn't been addressed is why fund her, doctor Bowers, executive position, and not replace it with somebody who's a volunteer. I was just putting a few things together.

And what I know about her is I think you started out the meeting with the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. That was a project that Deborah Bauer was deeply is deeply involved with. There's also been a sort of Seminole County Museum and the historic group. She's deep in that. Historic Castleberry, she founded that.

There's the Archaeological Society and the Arts Council. You take this woman out of Seminole County or out of Central Florida, and we're all going to lose a little bit, and in some places, a

lot

more. She is a dynamo. I mean, for anybody to do this and work as hard as she does for the Arts Council and not give up any of the other forces that she's a part of, that's incredible. And she's paired with Anthony. I've known Anthony for probably twenty years, if not more, Deborah for six.

They are a dynamite team. He works her like crazy because he told me that. I said, you know, let's just get together and have some dinner. Oh, no. Deborah's over here. I've got her over there. She's gotta go to this meeting. She's going to that one. And she does it, and that's just because that's who Deborah is. She when she gets her teeth into something as deeply as she is to to benefit this arts council, you know, you have a chance to keep this team together and not just fraction it out.

You said she oh, she she does so many things. And if something comes out, she fills that gap. How many volunteers will tell you that? Thank you.

Thank you. I'll just say for the record, this is not necessarily about asking Doctor. Bauer to leave Seminole County. Since that got said, that may end up in the paper someday. So we appreciate everything you do for all of us and all the roles that you fill. We are just fulfilling our fiscal responsibility. Commissioners, I'll open it. I'll close public hearing. Guy is coming up ready and poised to answer questions, unless you have something to say before the questions. Guy, do you?

Oh, no. Alright.

Thank you. Commissioners? Yes. Commissioners I

do have questions, maybe forgive it, probably for the county manager. In this whole review getting to where we are today, how many departments in the county were involved in doing a dive and review on this?

Do you

Yeah. I'd I'd say no less than about four or five at How

many hours do you believe we have in this review? Staff hours.

Too many to count, most likely, but

I mean, I think I heard one employee tell me they've got 50 plus just on the back end of this thing and maybe 50 on the front end.

Could be, yes.

A

lot.

And I think that some of the confusion, and I wanna make sure I understand for Guy for the public's input or or benefit, We've heard people say don't defund the arts. I've heard from us, we're not defunding the arts. Yet the questions before us are exactly that. The three options are exactly that Because we started this meeting saying these are three options or whatever the commission may want to do. And whatever the commission may want to do would include not funding any of the three options.

And I don't think that's the intent of this commission not to fund the arts. So what was the nexus for having these three options with the 50,000 and not just what the argument has been, which is the grant portions? I

if you want, I can Yes. Answer that. So, Guy and I were working on this presentation, we're like, let's put some possible options and solutions out to the board. So, we could just do everything status quo, what we have been doing. We can maintain the 50,000 per organization for their operational needs as we have been doing for the past twenty plus years or we could take the you're right, the grant program is really the issue of the day.

Right. To Commissioner Lockhart's point, we're not looking to, you know, we're not looking to cut anything. Know, the 50,000 to each organization for operational, you know, doing that. What do we do with the 40 plus thousand that we wanted to directly impact the arts in community and not go to operational. That's because it never had before. The 40 plus thousand was direct grants to nonprofit organizations. So, we were just thinking of we were just brainstorming of every possible Sure. Option that that we could.

And my question on that point would be, if you're going to have operations, who's going to operate it?

Operate the org the organization?

The operation itself. It takes people. Right? Right. Yeah. Okay. That's all I have for staff right now. I'm sure I'll have some some interaction with my fellow commissioners as we move along. Thank you.

Mister Constantine?

Thank you very much. And again, I enjoyed the the conversation from all the citizens, and I appreciate it. And I really and I've also enjoyed the comments of my fellow commissioners. And I especially like that commissioner Herve remembered the two, because that is why we started all this, quite frankly. It was a question of myself and some others when we looked at what our staff had presented to us.

Was this really meeting the needs of the whole, the whole county? And nothing against what I can't remember the and I don't wanna bring up what school it was, but giving an $8,000 tube two years in a row was not my idea of getting out totally to the arts, and maybe that was something that should be left to the school board if they felt that was a good idea. I wanted our, you know, our arts grants to hit the whole community. And I really appreciate the background because I do recall that there was a a groundswell, if you will, from the arts community in Seminole County that they wanted to do it themselves and not United Arts because they didn't feel that we were being given the proper identification and truly looking at what we can do here in the county for our citizens, not just students, because we've got a number of different ways we can raise money, and one of them, you know, both raising money and giving money, and the county should be looking at that and should be giving money where they feel it's necessary when it comes to arts. I truly believe and and and commissioner Zimbauer, I really appreciate the fact that you brought up the staff hours because I think we probably overspent just in the staff hours what we're giving to the arts this year and have in the past years.

And I think that that is one of the reasons we looked for the outside opportunity, people connected to the community, people that aren't have their first responsibility is, whether it be to the parks and recreation or to tourism and economic development or wherever else. And I wanna make sure that everybody, again, for the third, fourth, fifth time, that we are not taking any money away, or it is not my intent, and I hope it's not any intent, I don't think it is, take any money away from the arts that we have been given, but how and what mechanism we divide the grant money. I think that's where we're talking about, not the 50,000 and the 50,000. So to me, it sounds more like this has been a communications problem, as most problems are, that, you know, we there has not been a great deal of communications with the grants that are going and potentially, the Seminole County Arts. And I don't want to blame anyone.

It's a function many times of even internal of of departments don't talk to each other, let alone an outside group working with this. Now the executive director has been there one year. Before that, you know, we had a long term executive director who did an incredible job, and, she decided to retire. I certainly and we cannot talk about what has happened in the past, I think, without the context of there has been a change. So in my opinion, I see no reason at this point that we put the onerous or the burden on, you know, the Arts Council in saying, you haven't done this the way we want.

I think it's partly our problem and partly their problem in far as the communications. I am more than happy more than happy to give the Arts Council and the new board and the new director the opportunity and the time to correct, help correct, along with us, the communications problem and the and and the funding or the grants pro grants concern. So as one person, I think what we need to what I would want to do or see is that we give that money to them to show us that they can, you know, give out the grants and give them the the one year, build communications between the, the county and the departments involved and the Arts Council to ensure that we have the input also to help bring forth the grants that are needed throughout the county.

Thank you. Any other comments? Yes.

I'll go next. Thank

you, madam chair. Looking at the the contract, it clearly it states on page eight of 20 that the budget shown showing the allocated allowable cost under the agreement and has agreed to abide by the cost allocations in the budget. However, the allowed cost under this budget line item can fluctuate depending upon the actual cost. And then it clearly talks about the operating expense of 50,000, grants of 18,483, and arts and public spaces of 5,000. And I guess we're all talking about the 23,000 thousand dollars, which is the grants and the arts in public places.

It clearly states here that they're allowed to fluctuate it, and they've done that. If we want to nail that down and be a little more specific, that's on us to do that in the agreement because they're following the agreement. Is that correct, county attorney? Not county manager, county attorney?

Yes, commissioner. I see that provision in the contract and

ninety days you're saying

There's ability

make it to

we really wanna do that, then it needs to be in the agreement. They're following the agreement from what I can tell. And, you know, I think we all support the arts, and I'm and I'm gonna compliment us in getting into the details. I think it's good thing that we get into the details because transparency is the key. And I think that we all want to see more arts in public places and more art grants going out there, but due to limited dollars, it's very difficult to do that.

So I think the intent to actually put the spotlight on this is a good thing, and it's on us to move forward, but it actually talks about how they can fluctuate it. And it's important that we have someone there and that there is administrative cost to administrate this stuff. And so that actually needs to be accounted for. And for us to save money by not having actual staff time dedicated to this, because as we just talked about it from the other commissioners, we do have a habit of putting a lot of staff time behind all of this, and it's actually costing more to administrate it than the dollars are going out publicly. And so I'm glad that we actually have someone to do that.

That's the end of my comments.

Thank you. Commissioner Longhart? Yeah.

I saw that provision in the contract as well, and maybe it's a matter of interpretation because I imagine the fluctuation being between grants and arts in public places, not that the grants would go toward administrative.

I could I could accept your point, and it's valid.

So we do need to clarify and make sure that any fluctuation needs to be within the the the grant amount. A couple of things just based on some of the comments that were made, public comment. As far as I'm concerned, Seminole Cultural Arts Council is its own private five zero one c three. They can operate however they choose within the bounds of the law of the state of Florida. They can pay their executive director as much as they want.

If they wanna fundraise for it, however they wanna rate, they they can pay their executive director 6 figures. I don't care. What my concern is are the grant funds that we have said need to be spent on grants. We contract with that organization to do it. We are actually the ones who does the license plate funds from the state of Florida.

The reason SCAC gets those that $9,000 a year is because this board designated them as the recipient of those funds. It's the board of county commissioners' responsibility to designate the recipient of those state dollars. So this board has shown support of SCAC for years just through that designation alone. So while I feel like it could look like we're majoring in the minors because of the dollar amounts that we're talking about, I think it is critical that if we're going to be paying attention to the small things, we'll pay attention to the large things. And I think it's a good it's been a good exercise for all of us to understand how these funds are being spent.

I am still not clear, and I know mister Nelson says he's gonna get us the the cash flow budget to actual for the last few years so we can better understand. The arts and public places dollar amount for 2425 in your budget is listed as zero. Budgeted for 5,000 but zero. So I don't know where that went, if that went into grants, I don't know. So we're gonna my questions are not done in terms of the finances of how the dollars are being spent.

I do think that there is a question, and I think Doctor. Bauer pointed it out, we didn't ask them if they wanted the additional money. So maybe we ought to go back and have that conversation at a staff level as well and determine that, if that's the best way to go. There have been other suggestions made that if we choose not to do like just as the theater has decided they don't want to administer grants, if those dollars are coming back to the county, are there other programs that the county can institute that would be for the whole county, as Commissioner Constantine mentioned, would be more holistic, big umbrella type activities. I also think there's another way that we could manage the grants if SCAC wants to do it.

We could have them go through the process of I love Mr. Brendlinger's comments about how thorough they were and the way that they looked at things that were unique. That was very, very helpful. When the county had our program for arts and cultural grants, there were very specific criteria that were established for what those grants were supposed to be. I don't know what SCAC's grant criteria is.

Maybe that's something we need to look at as well, if they're going to be administering the funds for these grants. Perhaps SEAC volunteer team, continues to look at the grants that are applied for, and then they submit their winners to the county finance, and county finance pays them directly. That way we know exactly how much has gone toward grants. I think there are all sorts of different ways that we can accomplish what it is that we're hoping to accomplish. And I think Commissioner Constantine made a very important point, is that both SCAC and the county, it is incumbent on us to clarify the misinformation that has permeated the community that this board is attempting to defund the arts.

It is just wholly untrue. So I don't know that in terms of direction of moving forward, I still have every desire to allocate the same dollar amount to arts in Seminole County. It is the methodology and the mechanism for the grant dollars that I think is still up for debate.

Thank you, commissioner Zinbauer. And then we're gonna wrap this up.

So there's a couple things I wanna make sure, and and I think I've heard. First, I look at these as, yes, these are private entities. But when Seminole County government gives them their $50,000, and that gives them some legitimacy to go out and raise their their private funds and private donors because they're doing something, the government has stood behind them, and it just makes that so much easier for them to raise money. I'm not gonna speak for Wayne Dentsch theater, but I suspect the reason they don't want the money for the grants is because they probably don't have anybody sophisticated or have the time to do it. And I would tell you if this county uses an employee to manage these grants, we're gonna spend every bit of that.

That's not been suggested.

Is that is that about right?

You're right.

It has not been suggested. Suggested.

I'm not but I'm not saying that was suggested. I'm just pointing out the facts.

Okay. Thank you.

But I also heard, and I did hear commissioner Heard, did you not say you want a 100% to go towards the program and not for salaries?

I want a 100% of the grant money that we award to be used for grants, and I think that's a reasonable expectation. There's $50,000, and then there's grant money.

And does that grant include funding for someone to operate those operations?

Because there's a separate

bucket for that. Salary to go towards that. I know I had that right. Correct?

Commissioner Zembauer, there are two buckets of funds that are going to this organization. $50,000 for operational expenses, and there's a separate bucket for grants.

Understood.

Spend the 50 as you may. I struggle with that, but spend the 50 as you may, and the grants need to be operationalized for grants and reported back to us in a way. So you've asked the question, I'm going to answer it with with beyond what you may have expected. I truly do believe that this entire problem I'm not gonna call it a miscommunication. It is a problem. It is shared in that we, as a county government, let's own this from the fact that this has bounced around from the department to department, and God bless you, Guy, you have it. Yay.

Our department's happy to be the home authority. That's

very sweet. That's out there. But let's just take our responsibility for that and say that we, on our side, have not held accountability to the standard that it should be. At the point that the original question in this original meeting got asked, those answers should have flowed from the lips of both the executive director and our staff manager. And the executive director was there for a year, difficult pulling together the financials, etcetera, etcetera.

We couldn't do that. And so I don't think anybody up here is suggesting that we now get in the grants business of figuring out which young artist gets to display their visual arts at some festival. We we get paid way too much to do that. There's pensions involved when you pay us to do something. Don't wanna do that. But we do have to hold the money that we give out that is not ours, that is taxpayer dollars, to a standard that is above reproach. And we weren't there. And that's what I think we have to work through. I would suggest to you all, for consideration, that we split this up. All of these options look like they are either or.

I believe that what I've heard is that there's no question on the $50,000 for Wayne Dench. That could perhaps be a motion. There is no question on the $50,000 funding for the Arts Council. That could be a separate motion. And then we figure out what we do with this little bucket of grants that's caused so much havoc. Because the contract, from my perspective, needs to be tightened up. I think there's work to be done on that. And then I think there needs to be sample reports that are included in that contract that make it very clear what you need to do, because right now it's quite unfair that you may or may not know what we expect. And so there's work on our part. That would be my suggestion for moving forward.

I would also state that there are multiple organizations in this community that could administer these grants. And so when there's talk of alternatives, I don't necessarily think there's the thought that we're going to bring it in house. And I think Doctor. Bauer brought up a very good point. We never asked.

And should that be the answer, is that this isn't in what you really want to do, and it's too costly, that we seek other alternatives. I also think that what we've learned is from our from the community and the community has learned from us that's been very valuable is that we should not take any of this for granted. We have a responsibility to the taxpayers to make sure that we're doing the right things. The fact that it took so long for staff to pull together in four departments, that's on us. That is on us. And I will point out dashboards would fix this. Just Okay. Point that out. So I'm looking for a path forward, not continued conversation, if possible.

Well, I'm not I still need to have some conversation if that's not a problem.

Nope. Not a problem.

Problem with with y'all. So I think what I'm hearing is you want a 100% of the grants to go. So if salary came out of the 50,000, that doesn't bother you to give you any heartburn?

Correct.

Okay. All along.

That that's been the position all along, commissioner.

Is that

alright? Wanna make I just wanna make sure that

was position all along. Okay. So I

just wanna point out, finally, so Guy doesn't have to run the numbers. I had the numbers run on what what the funding was before when it was almost a $180,000 in 2006 or 2007, whatever that date was. That'd be $280,000 in today's money. And we're funded in a 100,000 plus 48 Right. $8.61 60 in grants.

So just just for a reference where we are today going historically, where we're at. So, you know, I'm ready to move forward. I think we've spent enough time on this. I think to commissioner Constantine's point, we spent way more staff time on this than what the money we're talking about. But it should be tightened up.

I think there's a lot of onus on us that's been said, and I think we're gonna have to rely on the county attorney's office to to tighten up because I've read the contract. Nothing precludes from charging a salary to the grant monies. So there's it's not a contractual breach, but if that's what we don't want, then that needs to be spelled completely out in the contract. No question. That's all I have.

Thank you. So I think what missed inclusion in the contract was the conversation that this board had when we made the decision to divide the funds up to the two organizations for grants. This board was very adamant that the funds were only to be used for grants, and commissioner Constantine even made a point during that meeting to make it even clearer. I think commissioner Delari and I were like, oh, they know it's for grants, they'll spend it on grants. Shame on us for not making sure that the intent the the intensity of the intent did not make it into the contract.

So that that certainly is is an opportunity to improve for sure. But, yeah, if you go back and watch the video or read the minutes, it's very clear what the intent was of the board.

So commissioners, is it your desire to yes.

I will attempt to make a motion. Thank you. So I will move that we concur with the 50,000 going to Wayne Dench, the 50,000 going to the Seminole Cultural Arts Council. Second.

And Is that one motion? I'm gonna try to

them all. That the remaining money of the for the grants be going to the Seminole Cultural Arts Council with the caveat that the county attorney that no money in that goes to salary, and the county attorney tries to tighten up not tries, tightens up the contract so that it is very clear. Second.

Can I ask for clarification on the motion?

Mhmm. I'll try.

Well, when when you say the remaining funds for grants, are you talking about the bundled amount of 40,000, or are you talking about the original 50% of the 40,000, the 23?

I am talking about the total amount. Yeah. Because where else was the other amount gonna go? We we would be cutting the arts.

Can you define the number of the total amount?

$48,881.60.

Yes. That's right.

So what just devil's advocate. What if the theater comes back under new leadership, new direction, and they say, well, we would like to have access to grants. We'd love to do that now for theater programming because we want to do whatever.

And I think that would be very good to talk about in the next budget session. Because right now, this is this budget session and they have decided they did not want to. So this year and that's all we're talking about this fiscal year, that money will be going to the Seminole Arts Council, the Seminole Courtsial Arts Council.

So we have a first and a second. Further questions?

No.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Motion passes. The contract is coming back to us though. So that I like that was the intent, but the devil's in the details.

Right. We'll we'll bring it back. I

would prefer not to go to a break if possible. If anyone I understand. We're going to move on to the next item. Utilities Master Plan.

Johnny boy. Better hurry. Alright.

I have been assured by Commissioner DeLaury that he will be back forth with. So if you'd like to start, please feel free to go.

All right. Thank you very much, and good morning, Chairman and Commissioners. I am Johnny Edwards, the Utilities Director. Joining me today is Steve Reilly of Jacobs Engineering to present, our Utilities Master Plan Work Session five, our Capital Improvement Plan. Our agenda for today, very briefly, purpose, then we're going to go into a review of prior master plan work sessions before we talk about our proposed capital improvement plans and the next steps, and then turn it over to the BCC for discussion.

The purpose, very briefly, just to present our recommendations for the utilities capital improvement plans. Going back to look at the previous work sessions, and again, we think this is important because these are the foundational building blocks of the capital improvement plans. In the first work session, we had a kickoff meeting and talked about demand projections, demands for water usage and wastewater flow. We also talked a little bit about the holistic water policy and the benefits of water conservation. In the second work session, we looked at the water supply and conservation in a little bit more detail, talked about our various water supply wells, the Central Florida Water Initiative, and their rules, and the Seminole County, plan for compliance with those rules.

In the third work session, we looked at the treatment plants and transmission names in a little more detail, talking about, the fact that the utility is maturing. We're no longer in a phase of high growth. Looking out in the future, not an apparent need for big water treatment plant capacity expansions, but the wastewater treatment plants, the water reclamation facilities would likely need additional capacity. The R and R focus at the water plants is on ozone and SCADA systems. In the fourth, our previous work session, we looked in a little bit more detail, getting assessments, the results of assessments on specific facilities within our utility, the Greenwood Lakes Water Reclamation Facility, infiltration and inflow study, our advanced water treatment plants.

Those are the three of five water plants that have ozone at the plants, then our surface water treatment plant at Yankee Lake. So that is a very brief summary of our prior work sessions. And with that, I want to get into the proposed capital improvement plan, I'll turn it over to Steve.

Thank you, Johnny. Steve Reilly, project manager with Jacobs Engineering located in Orlando. The CIP represents the culmination of a multiyear process, a master planning process, where we look at the utility needs over the next twenty years. We first establish what are the level of service requirements of the utility, what are the customer expectations, and what are the regulatory requirements.

We look

at the projected capacity demands of your potable water, your wastewater, and your reclaimed water systems over that twenty year period and determine whether the current infrastructure can meet those future needs. And we also look at anticipated changes in regulations in the future and what the utility might need to do to comply with those. Other elements include renewal and replacement, which is a major component of the CIP. Your utility is sort of entering a mature phase, we'll call it. And over the next twenty years, renewal and replacement needs are going to outweigh capacity stresses on the system.

We also look at your obligations and your interlocal agreements because they have significant funding requirements, such as your participation in the City Of Orlando Iron Bridge water reclamation facility and the Snockwater system in the Southeast area, and any obligations you have for utility relocation work within road rights of way. And then we also look if there are any technological upgrades worthy of investing in the future, things such as water advanced metering infrastructure. You can see up here on the pie chart the total over the twenty year period is about $855,000,000 Those are in current dollars. Starting at the top there on the system wide projects, that's some funding for master planning and program management services. SCADA is a large R and R need because of the need to replace that type of equipment as technology advances.

Developer agreements include infrastructure improvements to serve developments like the such as the Reagan Center. Wastewater collection, there's a large component of that for testing of pipelines, especially wastewater sewer type pipelines for testing and repair to reduce infiltration and inflow. Wastewater pump stations, you have over three fifty pump stations and the budget there is largely related to renewal and replacement. Water distribution includes capacity improvements in pipelines and also investment in water advanced metering infrastructure. Reclaim water, that budget there includes expansion of the reclaim water system in your Northwest and Southeast areas as outlined in holistic water policy so that customers can get off use of high quality fresh groundwater to water their lawns and instead use a readily available reclaim water for that purpose.

Water treatment plants, there's funding in there for some improvements to the Yankee Lake surface water treatment plant and more advanced treatment at the Markham Regional Facility. Water reclamation includes some urgent needs at your Greenwood Lakes water reclamation facility and later in later years, expansion of the Yankee Lake facility. Utility relocations is moving utilities to accommodate roadway work. And the alternative water supply budget, again, as outlined in the holistic water policy, there's a large need there for investment in water conservation measures to reduce water usage by the county and as required by all Central Florida utilities to comply with the Central Florida Water Initiative.

Next,

Johnny. Renewal and replacement is over half of the CIP, and you can see here what some of the main categories are. The largest one is the wastewater pump stations. You own and operate over three fifty of those. The plan is to touch each one of those on a twenty year cycle, meaning about 15 to 20 need to be dealt with every year, and there is a backlog in that area, but a plan is in place to catch up on that.

All right. Thank you very much, Steve. I wanted to, just present a time plot of the proposed twenty year CIP budget. And across the top, there is the, we tried to smooth out, the line a little bit, but there is a backlog, as Steve mentioned, of some work, that needs to happen in the near term, and then you'll see the line kind of subsides after time. The average there, as Steve mentioned, over twenty years is $855,000,000 That's a little over $40,000,000 a year on average.

The red line on this chart shows our recent history, about four years. Our average CIP budget for the utility has been about $29,000,000 so that's an increase in the budget need. But we did some benchmarking, of comparing our CIP per customer, budget to some other mixed utilities, mixed meaning water and wastewater. And 29,000,000 a year is a little bit low. Again, the average of just over 40,000,000 kind of puts us on the lower end of a range that we see in other utilities.

And again, with being on the lower end of that range, not being in a period of high growth is understandable, but we normalize that to compare, you know, the CIP spend per customer. On the left hand side of the chart, I just, wanna call out. I have a little triangle here there. That's the, approved FY twenty six budget. The line up top is our proposed, and I'll get to that in a little bit, but it relates to a state award of funding for the Greenwood Lakes Wastewater treatment plant project.

I wanted to, and I'll do this very briefly, just redivide maybe a couple different divisions on the proposed CIP. Steve had a couple different pie charts. I wanted to look at our larger projects. And I divide these up into programs and projects, if you will. These are capital maintenance programs where we're budgeting basically every year to keep the lights on, if you will. Just what monies do we need to invest primarily in R and R to keep our facilities operating in good condition. And as Steve mentioned, pump stations, we have three fifty of them. That's what keeps the sewage moving. If one of them doesn't work, we hear about it very quickly. It's a problem.

So we have staff that inspect and maintain these facilities, but the R and R program is major overhauls of these stations. Water treatment plants, R and R, you know, very important. Steve talked about these. Number three, program management. This is a team of consultants to help us get the utility on track and really work through some of that backlog we saw at the front end of that time plot of the CIP budget.

Water reclamation facilities, R and R. And then number five, as Steve mentioned, we have obligations to the Iron Bridge Wastewater Treatment Facility. We own 21% of the capacity there, and we help fund the R and R projects for that facility to make sure that, that infrastructure remains in good working condition. And then the columns here, I provided the total twenty year budget, along with the five year projected CIP with the FY 'twenty six detailed out in the various columns. And at the bottom, the total of all programs, there are about 30 programs in the CIP.

And moving on to projects, these are our top five, largest projects, in the CIP of about 55 projects in there. Again, Greenwood Lakes, you heard me talk about that in the prior work session, concerns with class one reliability, the headworks. The good news for this facility is that we applied for state assistance on funding this needed project. They announced awards in our priority list in November. The bottom line on that is that we were recommended for a $19,167,000 award.

That is an SRF loan, half of which is forgivable, so $9,500,000 is forgivable. The other half, 9,500,000.0 is can be repaid to the state over twenty years at 0% interest. So those are fantastic loan terms. But again, this is a this is a needed project. I do plan on coming back in a couple months with a budget amendment request, primarily as a result of that state award.

Number two, Yankee Lake, our water reclamation facility. This is wastewater at Yankee Lake. The demand flow projections show that, within about five years, we're going to need to expand the capacity at that facility. Number three on the list, the surface water plant at Yankee Lake, which was, created years ago to augment our reclaim system. And as Steve mentioned, reclaim is important, to reduce our reliance on the upper floor and aquifer and potable water for irrigation.

We need more reliable reclaimed water, so work done on that plant to make sure that our reclaimed augmentation is reliable. Number four, Lockwood Boulevard area. I think all the commissioners recollect some issues we had with a pretty deep gravity main buckling underneath Lockwood Boulevard a few years ago. We know there's some additional work that needs to be done in the area, so we have an assessment ongoing. And we're planning on improving the sewer so we don't experience those types of issues again.

Number five, Orange Boulevard, in conjunction with Public Works, when they make road and storm improvements in Orange Boulevard, We will want to get in there in conjunction with them to relocate and improve water and sewer mains and install a reclaim main along that corridor so that we can provide reclaimed water to neighborhoods that are already plumbed for reclaim, but we don't have a mechanism at this point to get reclaimed to those neighborhoods. And again, I just want to point out with $850,000,000 over twenty years, you know, this is a large CIP, you know, with that we put together with the best information that we have at this time. Change management is important. We know things are gonna change over twenty years. You know, we get new there's new regulations, new environmental conditions, new business conditions to which we have to respond.

You know, so the success of the CIP program is our managing those changes and bringing back to the Board every year as we request the following year's budget. You know, if there are changes that we have to this plan, we'll make note of those to the Board, tell you why we're recommending changes, you know, the reasons for the changes, so that, you know, everybody knows, you know, why we're recommending changes. With that, the next steps. We talked about before previous work sessions, today's capital improvement plan. The total list we have in a draft form you should be receiving within the next several weeks in the draft text, of the master plan.

In March, we plan to come back and present, the final master plan, along with the holistic water policy, and as I mentioned previously, a budget amendment request, for, to present to the Board. So with that, that concludes our presentation today. More of an update perhaps than a work session, but we wanted to present to the Board in advance of our bringing the final master plan in March. So that concludes our presentation.

Thank you very much. Thank you both. Commissioners, any comments?

We had a brief briefing,

and we'll get to the

next time.

Great briefing. We know the nuts and bolts are there. Now we've got to get fill in the blanks.

Thank you. It's the pipes and drains. Right?

Madam chair, if I may. Yes, sir. I know I had to step out for a minute, but, I just wanna make sure, not today, but in the future. I know there's some contracts, agreements, and commitments that need to be reviewed. I'm not looking for them to be totally reviewed and updated, but somehow an outline so that in the overall master plan that we're aware of what needs to be done as we move forward.

Yes, sir. Okay.

We look forward to your next steps. It's exciting that we're actually starting to move things out of The planning The planning stage, as you must I think I'm getting coached on using nice language here. So I I appreciate that you read my mind. I was thinking of the pipeline perhaps being clogged as we're talking about sewers. Out of the constipated state and into the natural state of unison. Oh, okay. That's where I was going. There it was. I think it's exciting.

Oh,

yeah. It's taken a lot of work. You've done a heck of a lift on this from where we started. So we all very much appreciate you and certainly our consultants. Thank you.

Thank you. There's a lot

of teamwork that went into it. Yep.

Appreciate it.

Durbin: With that, I'm going to get in trouble when I get home. Already know it. With that, I think there's been a suggestion that we move the next item to the afternoon.

Madam Chair, yes. So there's two things. It's probably about a twenty minute discussion update for the last basin study. We can definitely put that first thing at the start this afternoon, or if you want to continue, it's totally up to the pleasure of the board.

He says this afternoon. I say plow through.

Yeah. I'm a plow through. So gentlemen, what is what is your wish?

I could go this afternoon.

So we're two and two. Commissioner Oh, plow through.

Plow through. But on that subject Plowing through? Plowing through. Plowing through.

So I

I don't know, and this has happened before, but when we have a very, very, very, very short meeting in the afternoon, is there ever been any thought that we could just plow through

Yes.

And complete That

will be happening in February.

And complete the whole thank you.

If I Already imposed.

If I may on that, it's it's just the advertising requirement. Right. So if we want to do that, we can definitely do that.

Yeah. If we thought it was a good idea, we could always fix the average. Yes.

Thank you. Yes. All right. Here comes the plow team.

Leading up the plow team. For the

record, John Slott, Director of Public Works. We are here to finalize all 13 basin studies with this last group. We are joined also by our consultant, Mark and the team from Geosyntech, who have been very helpful in this particular study, as well as multiple other studies. We appreciate them joining us today. So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to our chief design engineer, mister Joe Lefaso, to go through the presentation.

Thanks, sir. Madam chairman and fellow commissioners, I am Joseph Lefaso, chief design engineer for Seminole County Public Works. This is a base study update for the Big Little Wekiva and Yankee Lake basins. The purpose of this presentation is to provide an update on so this base study is collectively known as the Wekiva Watershed Management Plan. Our agenda today is base study overview, base studies timeline, Wekiva Watershed Management Plan update, next steps, and requested action.

There are 16 basins in Seminole County. A drainage basin is also known as a watershed. We've been studying these, you know, they're important boundaries of land where all the streams and rainfall drain into a single common body of water. This is reason we study these is because they are all part of the overall program. So we have a basin study which then produces project concepts.

Those are then input into the master stormwater plan. Those become prioritized projects as part of our work program, and then we move on to designing and constructing those projects to improve flooding and water quality in Seminole County. Things we look for here, level of service and how each of the watersheds responds as a level of service in regards to each of the design storm events. That is then computed into once we have those projects identified, we then design you know, get enough information about them so we can compute a score for each of them based on this rubric. Today so we have 13 out of 16 basins that are studied.

Today, we are looking at the basins on the far left in blue. This process began in 2019, and now we are pleased to finally bring the basin study component of this to a conclusion today. Again, just as an overall, you know, through 2019 between 2019 and 2025, we've held public meetings. We've gathered all the data. We've created the models. And now today, 01/27/2026, we're here for the final of the three presentations on the basin studies. Specific to this one, the Wakaiwa Watershed Management Plan, again, it's the three basins in blue. They it consists of Big Wekiva, Little Wekiva, Yankee Lake. That's a total of 56.2 square miles. Yeah.

These three basins act as a single unit, so they're grouped together in this fashion to reflect that. The cities of Lake Mary Longwood, Altamonte Springs, and Casselberry each have components that are within these three basins. We have a total of 13 project concepts, and then there are eight additional water quality BMP area recommendations, so eight additional projects on top of those 13, that are present, and that was a specific ask due to this, ecological sensitivity of the Wekiva Basin in particular. There are a total of 2,089 sub basins, 440 of which are closed. The this watershed management plan was brought to us by Geosyntech, our consultant.

And, again, as an overview of their general scope, they were tasked with developing a hydraulic and hydrologic model, flood inundation mapping, flooding assessment, water quality assessment, deficiency identification, product scoring recommendations, and then that's, again, gonna give us that improvement project prioritization and evaluate conceptual capital improvement projects to alleviate flooding and improve water quality in this area of the county. The results presented in our typical three slide format, we have the extant FEMA perm maps showing 10.3 square miles of floodplain within these three basins. These are currently used for flood insurance. They are from 2007 based on data from the nineteen nineties. So our now proposed delineated hundred year flood plain inundation map based on the results of our own modeling, we're showing 11.2 square miles of flood plain.

This is using the latest available data, and then this is gonna give us an 8.7% roughly increase in the area within the floodplains in these three basins. We have a breakdown by parcel, by building, and by total area on the bottom left in the table between the two slides. Then finally, we have our proposed flood improvement projects. Here, the order is the order. So again, number one is number one priority and just on down.

This basin study, does have three projects of the top 15 that are already in progress. And then in addition, that's number 17 at the bottom, that project Markham at Lake Markham was already in progress as this basin study was being conducted. So even though that didn't make that top cutoff, you know, of that 15 ranking, they we did not want to imply that that project should be halted or canceled because of the fact that it didn't make the top 15 since it was already in progress. So it is included on here, and it is in the recommendations of the study to conclude that project. Finally, again, as I said previously, there are also additional eight water quality projects that were asked on top of those flood abatement ones because the ecological sensitivity.

These are gonna help us address those total maximum daily loads in this Wekiva Basin because again the the issues with the water quality here. So that was a specific ask for this particular basin study. Next steps, we have the provide the models for development review for best use available information and then submit final approved studies for FEMA for review and their firm map updates. Overall, we've now concluded this is the third and final batch of basin studies. And then we will take those now that we're going to have the final ones delivered to us after this meeting.

We will now use those to finalize the stormwater master plan for the in the first half of this year. And now our requested action is board approval for acceptance into service of the Wekiva Watershed Management Plan as recommended by staff.

Thank you for your presentation. Commissioner Mr. Constantine was ready to leave.

Well, I was just going to say, we, you know, all of our watersheds are extremely important. But this one, because the impact it has on the remainder, as well as saying, is quite important. Therefore, thank you very much for this presentation and the hard work. And I will move board approval for acceptance into the service of the Wakaiwa Watershed Management Plan

as recommended by staff. Second, before we go to discussion, I just want to point out that sometimes I listen to webinars after the fact, so I can play them in 1.5 or two point zero speed. And Joe, you do that when we need you to do that. So thank you. Thank you for just hustling it up. I know it's not easy. Discussion commissioners?

Just one question. What are we doing with the Lomars?

So FEMA is in progress of updating the firm maps. We have provided them, as we said, the data that we have collected. They are reviewing the data now, so they have a team led by their consultant, AECOM, a very large engineering firm for that effect. And they have promised us, again, this was earlier this month, that they will give us a formal response