Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Everyone. Thank you all so much for being here. If you would kindly take your seats. We're running a little is well, is the clock the right time ish?

Yes. It's a little it's a little slow. Right.

A little slow. Alright. Well, then we are

It's 09:32.

There we go. It's on time. So we are gonna go ahead and take our seats. If you would please and silence your cell phones, we're going to get started this morning. And I'd like to call to order the Tuesday, April 14 meeting of the Seminole County Board Of County Commissioners. Our invocation and pledge of allegiance this morning will be offered by pastor Eddie Rivera. We are so happy to have you here today.

Let us pray. Father god, we thank you for life and for breath, for allowing us to gather here today. You said in your word that all leadership and authority is placed by you. And so we just pray, god, that you would give us wisdom as we collaborate, as we unify to to speak the the the matters of this county, lord. We pray, god, for your presence here today. We love you. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.

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

Thank you so much. Pastor Rivera is a pastor at Action Church here in Seminole County, and he is also a chaplain for our Seminole County fire service. Thank you. Not on your agenda, but we have a wonderful presentation this morning. Our fire chief, chief Matt Kinley, has some things to share with us and a video that we'd like to play.

Good morning. For the record, Matt Kinley, fire chief, Seminole County Fire Department. I'm not going to tell you anything that you all don't already know, but just for the public, we had a great event here in Seminole County, April. In partnership with Seminole State College, Seminole County government put on attracted the firefighter challenge championship series. It's an actual sport in the firefighting world.

It encompasses five disciplines of which firefighters do on a fire ground. It has been deemed by ESPN the toughest two minute in sports, and if you can do it in two minutes you are an incredible athlete. We had a lot of our personnel participate, we had over 33 of our current personnel participate and one retiree. There was over 100 firefighters from across the world as far away as from Arnold Schwarzenegger's homeland, all participating in over 200 different events. But to better show you what they did, we have a short video.

Getting started is Matt Kidding.

Today, we

are out here recognizing the very best of the best. Let's go. The All American firefighter challenge right here in Seminole County.

It's a series of five events, which is a stair climb Hey, hose hoist forceful entry simulator, hose drag Finish

it. Finish

and then a victim rescue. Finish

it. Finish it.

This is a great event to showcase their training and all the years of experience they have.

Okay. We're gonna hold it. Go ahead.

It's an opportunity for the public to

come out and take a look

at what firefighters do, hopefully, inspire that next generation of fire fighters.

Seeing all these other firefighters from all over The United States and other countries, it's just a blessing. And we're really honored here in Seminole County to host this.

We've got over 25 of our

personnel out here. We've got a

guys team. We got a girls team. We got combination teams. It's it's just really great.

Let's do

it. It's always exciting for me to convince newer firefighters to come out and do this and participate, and, hopefully, they get bit by the bug and wanna keep doing it for the rest of the season.

Jenny Cox and I unofficially set the state record for coed over 40 at January.

What a fucking hell. Let's go.

To see our own fire chief, Matt Kinley, chief Kinley do this,

I don't even think he broke a sweat, to be honest with you.

Chief Kinley, hats off

to you.

There you go. There you go. There There

you It's really, really impressive to have a all chiefs team led by fire chief Matt Kinley. So to see that being led from the top down is very inspiring for us as athletes. And now it's time to kinda put all the pieces together and get out there and race.

So I'm pretty sure I've never said this before. Commissioner Dahl Ari, you were wrong. I was sweating. Again, great event. Brought a lot of people together. We're hopeful to bring an even bigger event next year just to point out how, again, our our crews perform. Out of all the competitions, we had seven gold medal winners, five silver, and one bronze.

Nice. Fantastic.

Commissioners, any questions, comments?

Well, Matt, what does unofficially mean? You know, unofficially

So I had to go back and get certified.

I don't know whether it's

been certified since, but we were told on on-site that Lieutenant Bowman and Lieutenant Cox set the Florida record.

Congratulations. Well,

would say that good work, fantastic getting out there and showing all of our skills. I will tell you it's not as easy as it may appear to be. When I spent this past year on our my dirty jobs tour, and I went to the fire training center, and they put all that heavy gear on me, and I tell you what, it's hot.

I mean, soon as you get

the gear on, you start sweating. So amazing y'all were out there, and it was it was warm that that morning and afternoon. So good stuff. We appreciate y'all.

Mister Benninger. Chief, how heavy is the bunker gear that they're actually carrying?

So once you put the gear on in the pack, you're pushing 75 pounds. Then you like, when you're going up the tower and you're starting to carry hose, you're well over a 100 pounds.

Wow. It's also impressive for the event. The firefighters are definitely impressive, but to see the support from their families, it's very inspiring to see not just the firefighters, but their entire family is all in.

So

thank

We always say this is a a family job. It's not just about the person on the truck, but everybody who's supporting behind them.

Well done.

It was awesome. It was a great day. It was really wonderful to have so many of our local Seminole County agencies out there being supported between the college and the county and the our our economic development team was out there. I mean, had I I don't know how many people. Do we have the numbers on the economic impact of that event here in Seminole County?

I do not. Guy, who is the orchestrator of this event. Thank you, Guy, who may may have that.

Maybe later on, he can he can dig those up for us. Oh, it's in your report. Fabulous. Wonderful. Thank you so much.

And, of course, a big thanks to Seminole State for, putting things together at their facility. It's great.

Great. We had our academy students out there, cadets. It was fantastic. Yeah.

It was it was phenomenal.

It was wonderful.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Appreciate it. Next up this morning, we have our proclamation for our veteran of the month, and this will be read by commissioner Constantine. We're also, going to skip around a little bit. After the veteran of the month, we are going to, read and pull from the consent agenda items number five, six, and seven, which are the other, proclamations on the agenda this morning. So commissioner Constantine.

Thank you, madam chair. And, it is an honor to, to read this today, this proclamation of the Seminole County Board of Commissioners, recognizing United States Army sergeant first class Tiffany Johnson for outstanding service to United States in Seminole County, and I'll move this resolution. Whereas the brave men and women of our army, navy, marines, air force, coast guard, and space force demonstrate a resolute spirit and unmatched selfishness selflessness reminding us there are few things more American than giving ourselves to make a difference in the lives of others. And whereas throughout our country's history, generations of service members have answered the call to leave their families, their jobs, and put their futures and even their lives online to valiantly defend our nation. And whereas for many service members, the sacrifice has ended in permanent injury or death, yet their spirit remains in continued preservation of our freedoms and the promise of liberty.

And whereas there are more than 30,000 living veterans in Seminole County who served our nation in times of peace and war. Through their service, they kept America strong. And whereas sergeant Johnson began her journey in August 1993 coming from a small town in South Carolina, raised in a family of sailors but choosing to forge her own path in the United States army. She served as a human resource specialist supporting the prestigious units of the hundred and first Airborne Division, the 80, and the eighteenth airborne corps as they partook in the combat operations in Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. And whereas sergeant Johnson made significant contributions to the army, including helping establish the first air assault school at Fort Bragg and pioneering antisynchronism training for the noncommissioned officer academy.

Her exemplary service earned numerous awards and decorations, including the combat action badge, airborne qualification badge, and the notorious notorious service medal. After twenty two years of honorable service, she retired from the United States Army and returned home to Lake Mary in 2016. Whereas following her retirement, sergeant Johnson has continued her commitment to serve as a case manager for the Seminole County Veterans Treatment Court, where she provides a vital role in supporting and advocating on behalf of veteran clients. Sergeant Johnson works closely with multiple agencies, including the Desire Foundation and Rescue Outreach Miss Mission, assisting citizens who are homeless with housing, food, and clothing. Whereas sergeant Johnson has brought great credit and distinction upon herself, The United States Of America, the United States Army, and Seminole County.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the board of county commissioners of Seminole County, Florida, express our gratitude, admiration, and respect for sergeant Tiffany Johnson for her outstanding service in the United States Army. Be it further proclaimed that this proclamation is presented to sergeant first class Tiffany Johnson along with our sincere congratulations and recognition as Seminole County's veteran of the month. Second.

So while everyone is standing, we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes four to zero. Commissioner Her will be joining us later this morning. Welcome, miss Johnson. We are so happy to have you here, and please share a few words with us.

Oh, I didn't have anything prepared, so please forgive me. But, thank you to the commissioners, and to the county, and also to the one who, recommended me, Woody. Thank you. I'm so grateful for my career. I thank God for carrying me those twenty two years. And it wouldn't be I wouldn't be so successful if it wasn't for the soldiers that I led. So I thank you for this award, and thank you. Alright.

Wonderful. Thank you for your spirit. Thank you.

After each proclamation is read and voted on, at the end of the proclamations, we'll all come down to the floor, and we can take pictures of whoever you've brought with you to to rec be recognized with you this morning. So thank you so much. Our next proclamation is going to be read by commissioner DeLaury. It is the child abuse prevention month proclamation.

Thank you, madam chair. Before I read the proclamation, I just wanna say a couple things regarding it in broad terms, and then we'll get a little more specific. Each year, many times, I could tell you the months go by so quick that right after the holidays, he's like, wow, that happened quick. And then twelve months goes by and another holiday shows up. And it's amazing how fast the months just click by.

The month of April for me, well as many other people, it's very special because we recognize child abuse awareness. It's an issue that is more front and center for people than people may realize. I would also tell you that the color blue is the color for child abuse awareness. Every April, because of what it means, I always paint one fingernail blue. I've done this month year after year, And I'm amazed at how I do it.

In fact, it happened this past Saturday when I was at dinner. Someone asked me, goes, what's wrong with your fingernail? I'm like, what do you mean? And I, well, we see you've got around to paint one fingernail. What about the other nine? And he goes, well, painting my fingernails is not a deal. It's not what I do normally, but it is for the month of April. And I do this one finger, blue, and I say because one out of five children, one out of five, will be abused by the time they're 18 years old. With one child too many. And I encourage everyone that if you're so inclined for the month of April, please paint that one fingernail.

So when people ask you, why'd you only do one fingernail? Because I'm supporting that one child. One child is one child too many. Also, what they do with child abuse awareness month, they actually pass out pinwheels. If you go by Kids House, which is a child abuse center for all of Seminole County, You'll see pinwheels in front of kids' house, as well as the sheriff's department.

Because this is something that, you know, so many families don't discuss. I mean, there's many subjects that families don't discuss, but this is one this is one topic that our entire family, the public, the county, our country should be discussing on a regular basis because that one child is so important to us all. So thank you for allowing me to go off script a little bit, madam chair. And what's that?

Here.

Excuse me? We do that here. And we do that periodically. I wanna thank so many people that support that one child. This proclamation starts that, and I wish it could go further.

So with that, madam chairman, thank you for the honor the privilege for the proclamation of Seminole County Board of County Commissioners proclaiming April 2026 as Child Abuse Prevention Month in Seminole County, Florida. And whereas the health, safety, well-being of children are fundamentally priorities of Seminole County, and all children deserve to grow up in a safe, stable, nurturing environment free of abuse and neglect. And whereas child abuse and neglect remains a serious concern affecting communities throughout Florida and Seminole County with thousands of children impacted each year. And whereas Seminole County's thousands of children are subject to the abuse or neglect reported each year, including hundreds of confirmed cases, underscoring the importance of prevention and early intervention. And whereas preventing child abuse requires a collective commitment from the residents, educators, health professional, law enforcement, social service agencies, community leaders working together to support families and protect children.

And whereas Kids' House of Seminole County serves as the nationally accredited children's advocacy center and is a central hub for child abuse investigation in Seminole County, providing a safe, child friendly environment where children receive coordinated services, including forensic interviews, medical care, therapy, and advocacy. And whereas Kids House brings together law enforcement, children's preventive investigation, prosecution, prosecutors, mental and medical health professionals in a multi disciplined approach to ensure compassion and effective response to the children that are abused. And whereas increased public awareness strengthens families and promote protective factors such as parents' resilience, social connection, access to resources are essential to preventing child abuse before it occurs. And whereas April is recognized nationwide as child abuse prevention month, symbolizing the blue pinwheel, presenting a bright and hopeful future for all children that they deserve. Now forth, they have proclaimed that we, the Border County Commissioner of Seminole County, do proclaim April 2026 as Child Abuse Prevention Month adopted this April 2026.

Second.

There's a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Thank you. You. It feels strange to clap after a proclamation like that, but we'd like to invite Melissa Winstead from Kids House if you're here or someone a representative from Kids House who's here this morning, if you'd like to speak about this proclamation and what it means to your organization and maybe a little bit about how you serve our community so well.

And, madam chair, there also is an individual with Melissa's Denise. She has Jordan with her. Can we bring Jordan down? Jordan plays a very vital role for that one child. Jordan has four feet.

You can come up to this podium here in the front if you'd like.

Thank you. Thank you all so very much for this proclamation. It means the world to us. We would have our entire team here this morning, but this morning Fox thirty five came to Kids House and awarded Kids' House and all of our multidisciplinary team members with the Care Force Award. It takes an entire community to prevent child abuse, and it starts right here. So thank you for this.

Thank you for being here. Denise,

introduce Jordan.

Good morning. This isn't the first time Jordan's been here to visit you guys. Jordan is our facility dog at Kids House. And this August, she will have been working with the thousands of kids that have come through. It will have been ten years. So we're very, very lucky. The difference that she has been able to make, providing unconditional love for kids that oftentimes have never received that. We're very, very thankful for your support.

Thank you for being here. We appreciate all that you do.

And, madam chair, I'd be remiss if I didn't say that the sheriff Dennis Lima and his whole entire team and the seven law enforcement agencies in each one of the cities are remarkable. So please, when you see an individual wearing a uniform, thank them for the work that they do to protect that one child. I

am going to be reading the next proclamation, which is proclaiming 04/29/2026 as Denim Day in Seminole County. Yet another proclamation that probably won't elicit clapping, but something that is so important that we have awareness in this community and that everyone knows that, we stand resolutely with, with victims and, supporting our law enforcement to bring those to justice who have created victims. So commissioners, I'd like to move the following proclamation of the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners proclaiming 04/29/2026 as Denim Day in Seminole County, whereas Denim Day is observed annually on the last Wednesday of April as part of sexual assault awareness month, encouraging individuals to wear denim as a visible statement of solidarity with survivors of sexual violence. And whereas Denim Day began in 1999 following international outrage over a court ruling that overturned a sexual assault conviction based on harmful misconceptions about consent, inspiring a global movement to challenge victim blaming and support survivors. Whereas, this campaign has grown into the longest running sexual violence prevention and education initiative in the world, uniting communities, organizations, and governments in raising awareness and promoting prevention.

And whereas sexual violence affects individuals of all ages, genders, and backgrounds, and it is the responsibility of communities to foster a culture of respect, accountability, and support for survivors. And whereas, Seminole County is committed to the safety, health, and well-being of its residents and works in partnership with local organizations, law enforcement, educational institutions, and advocacy groups across Florida to provide resources, support services, and prevention education. And whereas institutions such as Seminole State College and regional victim service organizations actively participate in awareness efforts demonstrating the community's dedication to supporting survivors and promoting education of this critical issue. And whereas wearing denim on this day sends a powerful message that there is no excuse for sexual violence and that clothing never implies consent. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the board of county commissioners of Seminole County, Florida, do hereby proclaim 04/29/2026 as Denim Day adopted this April 2026.

Second.

There's a motion and a second. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. I believe we have a representative, this morning to accept this proclamation. Mister Damiani?

Good morning, madam chair, commissioners. My name is Louis Damiani. I am the executive director of the Victim Service Center of Central Florida, where for twenty seven years, we've been serving victims of violent crime, sexual assault, and any other kind of traumatic circumstance. We do that a variety of ways, through advocacy, twenty four seven crisis response. And and and and I share that, and it's actually fitting that I'm here today on the same day that we're talking about child abuse prevention because the month of April was also sexual assault awareness month, not by accident, whereas, you know, Safe House is the child advocacy center for Seminole County, the Victim Service Center is the certified rape crisis center.

In fact, we are the only rape crisis center in Seminole, Orange, or Osceola County. What that means, last year alone we responded to three fifty two sexual assault victims in crisis in the immediate aftermath of their assault. So nearly once a day, our team of experts responds to a victim in crisis. We also provided 3,400 therapy sessions and served an additional 2,900 clients. And best of all, all of our services are always free of charge to to the community.

We have a satellite office, in fact, here in Seminole County. So I applaud you for drawing attention. We take the last day, the last Wednesday in April, every single year, and locally, we champion Denim Day. This is I don't know how many years now you all have supported us, and I appreciate that. So you'll see us all in denim on the twenty ninth.

Of course, you'll see pinwheels in front of our offices throughout the month because our partners at the CAC do what we do for children, and we take care of the rest of the community. So I honor you. I I can tell you participation in Denim Day. You are not alone. Both Orange County government, Osceola County government, all the major cities, city of Sanford, Blake And Mary, you know, Orlando, we've been at this now for about a decade, eleven years, championing Denim Day, and it's super, super easy to participate.

Number one, you wear your denim on the twenty ninth. Super simple. But number two is you take a photo, much like much like the fingernail. Right? Take a photo and you post that to your social media and you tag us using the hashtag Denim Day at VSC Florida, the Victim Service Center, and then just watch it explode. We will have the entire state of Florida covered. You know, people will be taking pictures of their teams dressed in their denim, standing in solidarity with victims. And we should all do that, right? And so all the major governments, all the major businesses in Central Florida really galvanize around Denim Day, and I appreciate and honor you all for joining in that cause. And thank you for allowing us to be here today. Thank you.

Our next proclamation is going to be read by commissioner Zembauer, recognizing May 7 as the National Day of Prayer.

Thank you, madam chair. As we we reflect upon the proclamations that have already been entered and the ability for all of us to gather here today and we reflect upon our faith, nothing is more appropriate as what we see going on in this country currently as well as around the world. So as I read this, would ask that you reflect upon your own faith as we are in trying times, and hopefully we move forward as this country has always done so and and persevered with God's grace. The proclamation of Seminole County Board of County Commissioners proclaiming 05/07/2026 as National Day of Prayer in Seminole County, Florida. Whereas throughout the history of The United States Of America, we've poured out prayers in times of crisis and celebration and prosperity and need in times of war and peace, we've poured out praise to God for all he is.

Thanks to God for all he has done, confessions and pleas for forgiveness when we have parted from his words and will. And our history is filled with his grace, goodness, and abundant answers to those prayers. And whereas from the first prayer of our continental congress in 1774 to the opening of every session of the House of Representatives and Senate and throughout hearts and homes across The United States Of America, the practice of prayer continues to seek God for guidance, wisdom, power, protection, and provision that has persevered hope and united us as one nation under God. And whereas the National Day of Prayer is a public law established in the United States Congress in 1952, approved by a joint resolution amended by Congress and President Reagan with public law 100 dash three zero seven in 1988, affirming that it is essential for us as a nation to pray and directs the president of The United States to set aside and proclaim the May annually as National Day of Prayer. And whereas in our country, in county, and across The United States Of America, the Observers' National Day of Prayer will be held on Thursday, 05/07/2026 with the theme, glorify God among the nations, seeking him in all generations, inspired by first Chronicles sixteen twenty four, and the theme encourages believers to tell of God's glory and wonderful deeds across all nations in celebrating his works.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the board of county commissioners of Seminole County, Florida, do hereby proclaim 05/07/2026 as National Day of Prayer in Seminole County, Florida, and request the observance of our citizens and hope the prayers be poured out for our county, for our our neighbors as we live, serve, and work, and learn together that we share in joy, peace, and abounded hope adopted this fourteenth day, April 2026. Second.

Motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. We can clap for the national. So, if we would if we could start with the veteran of the month, we're gonna come down and do pictures in order in in the order in which we did the proclamation. So if you want to get your groups kind of together and ready to come on down, that'll be fantastic.

Thank you. Mister County manager, do we have any modifications to the consent agenda other than the three items that we just pulled randomly?

Thank you, matter chair and commissioners. No changes to the consent agenda.

Alright. Commissioners, any items you would like to pull for discussion or separate vote?

I do not, and I'm prepared to make a motion.

Alright. Please do.

Move to approve consent items two through four and eight through 14. Second.

There's a motion and a second. Any discussion? Oh, public comments. Is there anyone here who would like to comment? No, ma'am. And, you know, Dominique, we rely on you to to shout out, hey.

I'll let

you know. I've got I figured you would, but thank you. I appreciate or Kate, somebody. You you gotta keep us in line. Alright. Motion and a second. There is no public comment. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you for catching that. Our first item, on the regular agenda is an update from our Public Works Director, Tanya Lohrey, on McCulloch Road.

Thank you. Good morning, Madam Chair, members of the Commission. Our next presentation is actually a follow-up to a board discussion in February where there was a public meeting for the McCulloch Road widening. At that time, this commission asked the chair to send Orange County a letter. And in that letter, there was actually a request for Orange County to come to this commission and give a presentation on the roadway and the improvements.

So we followed up. We've had a lot of great discussions with Orange County. And I'm pleased to introduce Brian Sanders, who's a manager with the Transportation and Planning Department, which is part of their Public Works Department at Orange County. So without further ado, here's Brian.

Welcome. Thank you for being willing to cross the border this morning and join us. Well,

thank you very much, Madam Chair and Commissioners. And I did cross the border, but not without a team with me. So just way of introductions, our our deputy county administrator, John Weiss, deputy director of public works, Susan Usash, my project manager, Ian Fires, and our consultant project manager, Kevin Knutson from DuBerry.

Welcome all of you. Thank you.

Well, I got the introductions out of the way. McCulloch Road is a very important road for all of us and we do have some common interests that we share in that roadway and I'll get into that a little bit more as we get through the presentation. And as such, we should have, you know, common objectives as far as what that roadway does for us and the communities around it. I want to step through a little bit of history using aerial photography, and I picked the fifties on purpose because that's when the road right of way showed up, and I'll get into that a little bit more. Alafayah Trail was there in 'fifty eight.

North Tanner Road was there in 'fifty eight. A little bit of activity around the Lake Price area, a little bit in Seminole County as well during that period of time. In 1956 and '57, there were right of way dedications for the McCulloch Road, 40 feet in Orange County, 40 feet in Seminole County, and that stretched from Alafay all the way to North Tanner Road. As time went on in the late eighties, nineties, and early two thousands, a number of subdivisions were approved by both Seminole and Orange County. And with that came additional pieces of right of way that that formed the the complete right of way that's out there today.

Decade moving forward into the sixties, you could see that there was interest in the community to travel over to Lake Claire, the boggy branch. This was an important time for UCF as well, FTU at that time. You could see that they were constructing their campus. Decade later, much more formation in the UCF area, dirt roads pushing in from North Tanner Road, seemed like everyone was headed down to the branch, and other improvements started showing up, a little bit of land clearing on the on the east side of the branch. I had in nineteen eighties aerial, but it's had a big block taken out of it.

But incredible, incredible development happened in the in the late eighties all the way into the the nineties. The building boom happened. You can see that the landscape changed a lot. The four laning of McCulloch Road to Lockwood Boulevard happened. The two laning continuation east to Tanner Road happened. UCF, very well developed at that time. Not a stadium yet. The bounce house hasn't arrived, but that that that came later and we'll see that as well. During that period of time also, Seminole County and Orange County, we had roads in place. We needed to have a way to maintain them.

So there was actually this was an update to a previous agreement. I couldn't find that one. Anything that old is is hard to find. So road maintenance agreement includes McCulloch Road, four other roads, Orono Road, some others, and it was segmental maintenance. So, the county line went right down the middle of the road and we didn't want you manage your half, our half, so we did it in segments.

And I've got a map to show that here. The red line on that is is Seminole County's maintenance, the green is Orange County segment maintenance, and this road project is illustrated the beginning and the end. So, Seminole has just a little bit, basically, that Lockwood Intersection. And then here we are in the latest aerials, the Pounce House is in. Tremendous development continues.

UCF is up to 70,000 enrollment now, and so there's McCulloch Road is is is is being used quite frequently. In in 02/2015, mayor Theresa Jacobs at a state of the county address announced a new funding initiative for us. Called Invest in Our Homes For Life. We just call it Invest. $300,000,000 of investment there.

A significant portion of that went to roadways and and intersections and safety projects, and this McCulloch Road project was was in that within that package of of of improvements. It also included fire rescue, housing, and parks. We have a lot of common interests, I mentioned before. We have infrastructure goals, both of us do, focusing on safety, making sure that our emergency services can get to the our residents without having to fight with congestion and other impediments. We've also all signed on to the Vision Zero resolutions at Metro Plan.

It's a it's a very strong commitment to the community as well. And everyone wants a surety that they have easy access to these roadways, and they want multimodal uses. Everyone just doesn't want to be in a car all the time, so there's other modes of transportation that we can offer here. And there's a concerted effort. This area is very sensitive to land use changes and the response of the transportation plans that go along with that.

And we all come together regionally at Metro Plan, and we are senior leaders at Metro Plan as the biggest agencies there. So, it's important that we work together. In terms of our project development, this has been on our long range plan for a number of years. The 1.1 mile corridor study was kicked off in '21. It has extensive alternatives analysis and data collection and public outreach.

This is our functional equivalent to the state's PD and E study. You can see the the typical section, and we had a couple of typical sections that we analyzed. Very similar to what's out there on the four lane segment that you maintain. Community engagement, we did have a meeting. It was very well attended.

It was right there at the Methodist Church. We had about 71 people plus staff, so was a good good turnout. The land uses support this road as as well on single family, multi family, some planned development, and of course, UCF is right there on the corner. Traffic analysis that was a critical component of this project. As you can see, the graph to the right, the historical traffic counts back in 2008 going up through COVID.

COVID did a big reset in the in the traffic for probably some and Orange County as well, we've seen that. But we also have seen that ticking back up. That red line across there, that's the capacity of a two lane roadway. So we're heading back in that direction. As big agencies and companies are calling workers back into the office, we will continue to see that happen.

As we looked at the no build and build forecast, there's a range that we saw coming anywhere from 25,000 to 37,000 average annual daily traffics. And you can see that the twenty thirty eight volumes forecasted are very similar to what's happening out on the four lane road today. And so significant travel demand issues will happen coming up. It was also important for us to look at the crashes and and the topology of all of that. And you can see that the intersections dominate.

They always do. Fortunately, there's not been any fatalities in this segment, and we've seen a lot of pedestrians and bicycles. We've documented a lot of those being so proximal to UCF and other uses to the west. In terms of our typical sections, we'll take a moment to illustrate this, very similar, as I mentioned, to the four lane section that's out there today. We are utilizing some of the road base from the two lane section.

It's a cost savings and efficiency that we can use. Narrowing those lanes down to 11 feet, having a raised median with access management helps with the speed control of the corridor, includes six foot sidewalk multipurpose path, and as I mentioned, access management through the medians for the the subdivisions in commercial. Right of way is is a is a need for this project. I'm gonna illustrate a couple of areas. No direct impacts to the residents or displacements.

We looked at about 11 stormwater ponds. That was probably the biggest challenge of this this corridor is finding a place to put the water. The right of way includes some tie downs and some expanded ramps at this intersection. I just wanna focus on the West Side. There we go.

The blow up there. As part of the stormwater collection, we worked extensively up until just very recently with UCF for a stormwater pond, and that's the the blue shaded stormwater pond there on the south side. We also needed some floodplain compensation as we expand that culvert crossing here in the Bodney Branch Flowway, we will be impacting some floodplain in order to do that. And as such as such, we have identified an area on the Seminole County side for floodplain compensation. The next area is to the east, and here, it's kinda hard to see the the the red line.

There's about a five foot area that we've identified that we may need in order to tie that that improvement back down. This is very early in the development process. We didn't have the profile grade of the road as of yet. This isn't designed. This is the study, And we would be looking to design that out if possible.

So, that that equates to about a half acre. It's HOA property and then a little bit of the the Dollar General to the Far East. In terms of the benefits, congestion management and safety is is is is very high on on the list. About 15% of the traffic comes from Seminole on that corridor. The Seminole County side has about five driveways, both commercial and residential.

There's an existing traffic signal as well. Crash reduction, we've all signed on to the Vision Zero driving those serious injuries and fatalities to zero, adding better access management, lighting, signage, pavement markings all help the safety and crash reductions, extra mobility for bicyclists and pedestrians. We did hear that the residents identified some drainage issues out there. We wanna be able to take care of that as well. And the best of all, Orange County would maintain most of that.

In terms of our schedule, like I said, ongoing PD and E, we're looking to land our public hearing June 2 at our board. The next, if we're allowed to move forward with this, would be the design phase. We do have about $2,000,000 in budget for that. It's a two year process. Most most of these roads are about that.

Getting through that, moving on right of way acquisition, there's a little bit of funding, not enough to fund the whole thing at this time, another two year duration, and then construction after that as well. Overall, we estimate at a planning level stage about $33,000,000 for this project. And in summary, we all have mutual interests on this corridor.

It's a

very important corridor. Safety matters. Our emergency services need to be able to get in and out easily. There's traffic needs. There's crash reductions that we need to make happen. In the movement of goods and services, this is a functionally classified roadway. Operations matter. We wanna make sure that this is an efficient project consistent with the other segments, and there's opportunities to add sustainability elements into this as well. Timing matters. The cost of doing nothing is high.

We've all seen the increases in cost over time. Our property owners matter also. Very strong consensus in this area That has not gone unnoticed, believe me. We share a lot of that in common for developments on our side as well. Strong consensus that no easterly extension of McCulloch should happen, and we want to minimize the impacts to our residents. Again, our next steps with local planning agency, May 21, and our BCC hearing on the second. With that, commissioners, I'm here to answer any questions you may have.

Fantastic. Thank you so much. Great presentation. Any questions, comments? Commissioner Delari.

Thank you, madam chairman. I don't have a question, but I have a couple statements if you don't mind, madam chair and board. First of all, I want to thank you for Orange County staff for presenting here today. I did have a briefing with you as well as our staff. I think it was last week.

Mhmm.

Very well presented. I think it's good that this is coming forward because this will allow us the opportunity to look at our joint planning agreement slash road maintenance agreement. It's I don't know how many years it's been, but it's been more than twenty years that I can imagine that it needs to be updated because there are we need to bring it back into modern times. So thank you for allowing us to do that. I also want to thank UCF for they've been great partners with not just our county but Orange County and all the residents around there.

A perfect example of that is fire station sixty five. It's a joint use station. Orange County provides the engine. We provide medical transport, and both fire departments as well as staff works well together, and there's a lot to be said for that. And I know that we all work well together on many different levels.

I do have some concerns and I'm hoping that as we move forward we can address them. Looking at your presentation, and I think I pointed this out in our meeting in my office, Wes Hampton, you're doing 1.94 acres of floodplain compensation. That's correct. That will affect that community. And I really think that it shouldn't, and there needs to be another way to address that.

This has been a long range plan for a number of years, and it's been over twenty five years that I could come to imagine, and it's not really been in the forefront for us because there's really been, from our citizens standpoint, really no outcry to widen this road yet. And I'm sure at some point it will. And looking at your presentation, you're right. It's the PD and E looks at the road. There really is no intersection improvements.

The big intersection improvement needs to happen at 434 And McCulloch Road. And I'm hoping that we can move the needle on that because there are several issues at that intersection. Because right now, by just widening the road and again, I think that all we're doing is just getting people quicker to that intersection and developing a bigger parking lot, in my opinion. But at the same token, I think something needs to be done. I don't know if it's this because, you know, what I'm concerned about is as we get closer to the river, I'm afraid that the state or someone could preempt us to go over the river, and I'm opposed to doing that.

And that's my biggest concern, as well as by doing this, it alleviates the burning desire, if there is a desire, to do the Richie Karate Parkway to Tanner Road and to move people because this will be a parallel road to that. And that's why I'm opposed to a lot of these issues that I'm talking about because I don't see the answers yet. Those are my comments, Madam Chair. Thank you.

Would you like to address Sure.

Yeah. We've been working with staff. Tani's been fantastic, and and the team has been fantastic.

And you've been doing a great job with that. Don't get me wrong.

Yep. Yep. Absolutely. Some of those those issues are ongoing issues. We're we're discussing those and and we'll have much more communication coming in in the future.

I think that as we look forward, as we talk about what the state is doing, they're doing it to all of us equally. I think we're we're we're much better positioned to be in alignment with each other as as we face those mandates from the state. And we're we're committed to working with Seminole County in that regard moving forward. So that, I just wanted to let you know we're all gonna be working together on those things.

And these issues I bring forward, I already spoke to you about. That's why I make it public.

That's all. Absolutely.

Any other comments? Commissioner Zembaurer.

Yes. Thank you, madam chair. So I'll go back to original planning in Orange County. You you now have the grow, the agrihood that's coming out of the ground. And the grow brought, I think, somewhere around $24,000,000 to the table to help widen Highway 50 Eastbound, which that is about to take place and kick off, as you well know.

But the one thing that continues to be a problem in this general area is because UCF has grown, because on both sides of the border there has been growth on both sides. Richard Crotty Parkway has been contemplated in your long range plan for decades, but yet nothing has happened. This has been identified in numerous meetings between the counties as well as the community, and identifying the Richard Crotty for another East West in that UCF corridor. As the grow comes out of the ground and we have more density there and whatever entitlements exist to the Eastern Part of Orange County, we'll add more traffic to this corridor. And at some point, we we even identified Bonneville Drive from Highway 50 coming up north and south to relieve traffic in and around UCF through Research Park, and at that time Research Park had no appetite for allowing that to occur, which we all know.

Can you talk to us how Richard Crotty is it ever going to happen? I mean, I'm okay if you rename it

spell out your magic eight ball.

Yeah. I mean, if it's Richard Crotty, the name, I mean, let's name it Jerry Demings Parkway if you want. It's fine with me. But something's got to happen there. This is a short gap fix for the bigger problem of moving east and west.

By doing the Richard Crotty, you also get better access to Lake Pickett Road for the northern section of the grow, and your citizens further to the east to Fort Christmas Road all the way out to Highway 50 towards the river. So I think maybe not now, but I'd like to have a full understanding how that is moving along, if at all, because based on my review of all those documents, that really is the answer to bringing a real impact to this area as far as transportation, safety. As you said, the cost of doing nothing matters. So I'd like to know what the plans are for that.

Certainly. Certainly. We are working on the Richard Crotty Parkway. It's from west to east. In fact, we had to shorten the segment that we were working on originally due to funding. We just either have just purchased or in the process of purchasing a large piece of property that gets us up to hanging moss from 04:36. We have to make that transition through a property. Sure. The Jennings property, we've made that happen. The design keeps getting updated, the longer you string things out, but essentially we're working off the design plans to acquire right of way.

And as funding is available, then we continue to do that. So, as of right now, it's from 436 to Goldstone Road is what we're working on. There are a number of obstacles and you mentioned one of them is Research Park. Those are private roadways and there's some sensitivity militarily with those with a road like that going through there. There's been some other things.

The Verge Apartments had landed right there where we needed to connect to Alafayette Trail. We have not done a detailed study beyond Dean Road. There would be there would be a need to do a more detailed study to take it further to the to the east. We have our own political positions as well that that we're dealing with on that roadway. So that roadway is littered with land mines here and there, but we are actually working on that in earnest, and we're gonna it's a very important road from a network standpoint.

Any new road is going to be very, very important. And from a network standpoint, McCulloch and Richard Crotty are needed.

Sure. So thank you for that. And back as far back as 2010, there was conversation by the then mayor about this possibility of exactly what you're pointing out, starting to the West and moving east. There was discussion about looking at coming from the East moving west because, in fact, what was happening in and around UCF and trying to maybe leapfrog or jump that ahead because of all the movement that was happening over there. Is is that something that's still you all are contemplating, or is that just we we put that on the back burner and we're still going west to east?

We're still focused on west to east. We did do a regional study in that area. It's called Nellicats.

Yep.

100%.

It has a lot of intersection improvements that took just kinda helps us along, and those are now being integrated into our capital program as as well everywhere we can. Certainly open if if there's proposals that that we can manage that way and do it in segments.

You you can't do it

all in one term Sure. Of course. It may make sense maybe coming in at at both ways.

Right.

But again, we have some obstacles and and more and more discussions with our board in order to do something like that.

Thank you. I would just ask that our staff stay engaged as you move along. This is this area is a very sensitive area for wildlife. You know, we've got park lands that are in close proximity to this. Of course, our rural boundary, you have the rural boundary now in Orange County, which is a concern to those citizens on their eastern side of their county. So I I really think we need to clearly understand where we go from here on all of these things. So, maybe there's a work session update you can give us at some juncture from the staff, I'd appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate your time.

Before we go to public comment, sure. Commissioner Constantine.

I just wanted to say, that my fellow colleagues did a great job in articulating all of our concerns. We're you know, we have fought very hard to maintain and protect that area, and we think that, you know, having a bridge, another bridge, go over econ is is problematic, extremely problematic. So I'll just say ditto to what commissioner Siddhartha and commissioner Delorey said.

Yes. We've heard the thunder the thunder on that for sure.

Welcome, commissioner Her.

Thank you. Yep.

We have is there anyone here who would like to make public comment on this item? No, ma'am.

Yes. There is.

There's one in the back. I saw a yellow sheet.

Flashing in the back.

Is he sneaking that in instead of doing what we're supposed to do?

That's alright. We're gonna let it go.

I didn't know the presentation was gonna go like this.

That's alright. We're we're happy to have you and happy to take your comment. You know the name of press.

Get done. Oh, boy.

Alright. Bring it on.

Alright. My name is Bill Hyde. I live at 2379 Audley Street in Oviedo. I'll give you this in thirty seconds. I can't imagine why in the wild wild world of sports y'all would entertain anything to benefit Orange County's proposal here because the numbers just said only 15% of the traffic is Seminole County traffic. So 85% of the traffic is Orange County. A 100% of the benefit is to Orange County. Why are we even having this discussion? Just say no. This is it. This is easy. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Hyde. Miss O'Lorey, would you like to address any of those that comment or or mister Gray of why Seminole County would entertain this?

So I would say, Tanya O'Laurie I forgot to introduce myself. Sorry. It's the last public works director. As commissioner DeLaurie said, this has been on our long MTP, our transportation plan, our 2045. We are updating that plan for 2050, and it is on that plan in terms of the numbers, the traffic.

So it remains a part of our long term identified needs for this county. I think that in terms of benefits to Seminole County, while we may not only have 15% of the traffic, as our residents utilize this road, they're stuck in the traffic from either visitors or residents of Orange County. So I think the need is there because of the traffic forecasts. Now this is, of course, just a PD and E, what Orange County calls us an RCA. As we move through and as Orange County moves through the design, we will be in lockstep with that.

So we can continue to provide updates to you all on your concerns, such as the floodplain compensation, such as the any visualization issues for our residents. So I think it's good that we are so closely in conversation with Orange County so that we can keep up with all of the benefits and the potential impacts.

Madam chair, just for the record, if Tony, we're not asking for action at this time. Correct?

There's no action.

This is just for public this is just for informational purposes only.

Yes. This was a follow-up to the letter that chairman Hurst sent to Orange County asking for Orange County to come to this board to provide information.

Thank you, madam chair. I just wanna point out and get on the record for the benefit of all. The long range transportation plan is a living document.

Yes.

It can be changed at any time as we look down the road.

Based on the data.

And what this board and what the board in Orange County may find most important, funding impacts to the community, all those things. So so I wanna make sure everybody understands as a living document, things often come in and off the long range transportation plan. It's not always engraved in stone. Those things can change based on what happens in the community, what development happens in certain regions, and the impacts of all that.

As well as what gets funded.

Correct.

Because there's lots of needs in Seminole County, and that is the decision of this board to decide.

Right. Thank you.

So just for for clarification, while there had been discussion about a resolution that is not on our agenda today, we this is purely for our edification and continued collaboration with Orange Correct. That's correct. Okay. Fantastic. Thank you so much. Any other questions or comments? Commissioner Hur, you I know you're just sliding in.

I got nothing. But thank you, Orange County, for being here. Thank you for indulging us, and we look forward to further cooperation.

So we are going to take about a ten minute recess, and then we'll come back and we'll pick up with item number 16, which is our employee benefits and wellness update. And I will hand over the gavel to Commissioner Hertz.

Great. Thank you.

My sister's Take our seats.

Forever. Jeez. I'm gonna throw a party

at it. My sister's using

it now, so that's good. Good.

Good. Good job.

Job.

I think we're going to reconvene, aren't we?

Only takes ten years. Thanks, Don. Formerly on the floor. We're hiking.

All right. We are ready to reconvene. I want to give a big thank you to Vice Chair Lockhart for stepping in this morning and for all of you for being patient with me. The next item on the agenda is the twenty twenty seven employee benefits and wellness update with Christina Brandolini, human resources director, and mister Charles Cook from Alliant employee benefits.

Good morning, chairman and commissioners. Christina Brandolini, human resources director. This morning, I am here with Charles Cook and Leah Robleski from Alliant, and we will be giving you our 2027 benefit and wellness update, which we do annually for you. This year, we're doing it a little earlier so that if there's any anything that we need to do throughout the year, have time to do that. Because it is a little early, the wellness program is in we're in the right in the middle of that. So anyone who's listening, come to our meetings. We have several meetings coming up in April and May. So if you would like assistance with your wellness. But I will turn it over to Charles, who will give you the whole scoop.

Thank you. Good morning, chairman, commissioners. This is showing on your screen, and I wanna be sure that

Charles, I think you're gonna need to lower the microphone and give us your name for the record.

My name is Charles Cook. I'm with Alliant Insurance. I have been fortunate to be your benefits consultant for approximately four years now. And so I'm going give you a lot of some information, update. I would encourage questions at any time, interrupt me.

I don't want to just shotgun this to you. And I want you have the agenda. We're going to talk about the purpose is like where are we now and what does the future look like. We're going to talk about medical and pharmacy, some underlying programs that you all have that have had a great benefit to you, wellness and where we go from here. The first thing you have here is your spend since 2018 on medical and pharmacy.

The first column is the year. The second is the total spend. The third is your average employee count. And then the net total reflects your spend net of stop loss reimbursements, which is the insurance you have to protect against catastrophic claims. And then you have this per employee per month cost,

and you

can see that it is so stable from 'eighteen through 'twenty three, and then it goes skyrockets in 'twenty four, somewhat stable in 'twenty five. We've had briefings with each of you looking at the large claims, and essentially, the number of large claimants has driven so much of this. We don't know exactly why this happened. We do know that we have seen this across our book of business. We are seeing challenging renewals in the fully insured market, extremely challenging renewals in the stop loss area.

I'm hoping this is some stability. We spent time with Christina and Tim Jeks on what does this mean for next year, what kind of direction or changes do we need to make. I will say that looking as I became your consultant and saw this consistency, you all have the absolute best wellness program of any of our clients. It's kind of a benchmark that we have somewhat plagiarized from your prior consultant about the importance of having a relationship with a primary care physician, annual physicals, age appropriate exams. And fortunately, we're able to see more and more of these large claimants that were potentially preventable illnesses, or had they been caught much earlier, could have had much better treatment success.

This is the best slide, so let's focus on this. This is the best slide. This is your stop loss premium. For 01/01/2022, we were able to reduce your stop loss premium for protection against individual large claims and a catastrophe significantly. And this shows you year over year those changes to where the increase from '25 to '26 was 11.14, but we're still 4% below where we were, back in '21.

So that's a win. And I will tell you, in the stop loss market, there are some provision couple of provisions. One of them is typically you can have no more than a 50% increase in your stop loss, And that's a nice thing to have. That's how I thought of it. I never thought we would need it. We had seven clients with 50% increases last year. The hardness of the stop loss market is overwhelming. This is we were very happy with this success last year, and we are already in negotiation with the stop loss carriers to understand their philosophy as we lead into the renewals for oneonetwenty seven. Below that, your program does provide, based on your experience, to get some money back. And this shows you the money that you have gotten back.

It shows the middle column is the amount and then when it was paid. So it's paid after the fact, after all the claims have been reported. 25 is pending, but I don't believe we'll have a reimbursement because '25 was a big year in the stop loss.

So I do have a question. Yes. That contemplates the same risk from '21 to '25. There was no increase in the spec deductible?

There's no increase in what's called a specific deductible, which is the amount over which an individual's claim is paid. You also have this thing called an aggregating specific. There's been no change in the

terms. Fabulous.

Last year, we made some changes, some what I think were important changes, some minor plan design changes, but you offered a program where, essentially, you had a free option for any plan you wanted. And the top of this is the tops, the actives, the bottoms, the retirees. But look at the actives. Look at the high enrollment in the buy up, the mid, the low plan's low, the high deductible health plan's even lower. We made an adjustment to where, essentially, you will fund the low plan, if you will, and then there's a cost buy up for the other two plans.

And exactly what we wanted to happen happened. We had people move from the top two plans, so lower enrollment, an increase in the lower two plans. We structured this so that we would not be in a position because your population's your population. Moving from the high to the low is not gonna change that claimant's deal, and the deductible difference isn't that huge. But we structured it with Tim so that we would still collect appropriate funds from the employees through payroll deduction. So this was a step.

Question?

Yes. The other question I have I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Yes. Go ahead. Charles,

you and I have had this conversation, and I'm amazed on there's gotta be a way of showing people examples about how the how deductible plan actually works financially for them because there are times when people just have questions they can't get answered because it's they they have to understand it from their paycheck perspective and have an example of a fictitious individual or family really makes a big difference. And I think that if we did something like that, more people would entertain those.

I agree 100%. This is very low enrollment in the HSA plan based on the structure. Mhmm. It's still surprising to me the different uptake organizations. For example, we just we just got a new client who's a law firm. You would think their participation would be through the roof. It's one person. Like so education, I want you to education's a challenge. We offer on-site, virtual, every means possible to everybody at the county. We need engagement there.

Well, I understand that, Charles, but I think that by allowing someone to look at how it would affect their paycheck, you know, for that year based on their past claims experience would go a long way.

And we can Leah Roblesky is the account executive who makes everything happen, and we will enhance that education every year. Real examples, like if you give somebody a real example, they will see that this risk to them is not as great as it feels like.

That's the point I'm trying even to though I'm not doing a good job.

No, you made it perfectly. Thank you.

So I just would like to point out that the if you look at those numbers of us, Port Authority, Supervisor of Elections, and property appraiser that all sort of track, But the tax collector, 100% of them are in the buy up, so I suspect there's a different employer contribution strategy at the tax collector's office, just raising awareness. And then I think one of the challenges that this organization has always had is, and Charles did it very subtly, engagement. So he can host all of the education sessions. I have stood at education sessions where I had years where we said we're gonna have everybody do it, made it mandatory, and you had unwilling participants and therefore disruptors in the room. We've had years where we said, come and go as you please, which we then we have no attendees and a full staff sitting around for a full day waiting for people to stroll in.

We have to encourage from the top down engagement in understanding the financial commitment that this organization is making to employees with these benefits. You do not find benefits like this. I have no benefits like this on my entire book of business, and I bet you you don't either. They've been untouched for years. And I think we're spending a lot of money with very little appreciation for the program and very little knowledge of knowing that you could move into that high deductible plan and maybe manage differently.

I would also tell you don't have great expectations there because cash flow is not one of the things that we're great at in America. And so that limits people enrolling in those plans. And our plan is structured so that you can cash flow it, but it's still going to limit it. It's just an interesting phenomenon. But I, at some point, would like to understand the tax collector's employee contribution strategy.

I'll research that. I do want to reiterate this education piece, you are, as an employer, spending a lot of money, and it is a tremendous benefit. And anything close to mandatory would be great. And we've worked with groups where we be sure we have a champion, for lack of a better word, in the room to drive engagement. So thank you for those comments.

Okay. Next up, I wanted to name this slide about the pharmaceutical benefit manager, whack a mole seven point zero, but it was deemed inappropriate. But you just did? No, I said I wanted to.

Okay, well you just did. You

should run for office.

So this has been a challenge for years. Money is pushed down over here, hidden over here, pops up over here, and the whole game was about what discounts they gave you off average wholesale price and what rebates they gave you. That was kind of the game. It has evolved a lot to where a lot of what has been hidden has become unhidden. We are also dealing with a time where the terms transparency and pass through evidently have different meanings to different people depending on the day of the week.

So Cigna was selected for 2023. We renegotiated the third year of that agreement to their great gnashing of teeth that saved you in the neighborhood of $750,000 between discount improvement and rebate improvement for '25. We then did an RFP last year and went to a number of pharmaceutical benefit managers and Cigna to lose the pharmaceutical benefit would raise your admin fee by over a $100,000, and they will only integrate with certain PBMs. So we use the leverage to negotiate another they say 800. We our analysis was 450, $407,000.

Now Cigna says it's transparent. Cigna says it's pass through. So in front of Starbucks on Park Avenue, I ran into leadership and talked about, okay, the program you have now is called Cigna cost plus, and the program that they do for larger groups is called Cigna acquisition cost plus. And I asked what the difference is, and there was no answer to that difference. So we have gotten you approved to have acquisition cost plus, which would be theoretically better.

I had a less than productive phone call with them yesterday about that, but there will be improvement. So this market's moving, and we will negotiate the best deal we have. There are options out there that we reviewed last year. There are options out there that were not part of the RFP last year, but I don't think any of the big three are where they need to be on

a

transparent basis. For not for example, another one, big three, their goal is to get to transparency by 2028. So this is a tough area. You spend a lot of money here. We have a couple of programs that I'll talk about in a second, but are there any thoughts on this? You know, we did the RFP last year for PBM. We're here now.

Commission, would you all like my thought on this before you speak or after

you speak? You can speak first.

So this is this is let's define the big three. United, Cigna, Aetna, they all own PBMs. United's is Optum, Cigna's is Express Scripts, and Aetna's is CVS. Aetna's is probably the most transparent at this point. Prime Therapeutics, which purchased Magellan Magellan was a transparent PBM purchased by Prime.

Cigna does allow us to carve out and use Prime Therapeutics. The advantage to doing that and Prime Therapeutics did not respond last year when it went out to market. The advantage to doing that is twofold. Number one, it is, first of all, the only one that SIGNAL will allow us to do, and that is through an exception basis. The school district carved out to prime.

I was late this morning because we were doing their information session. And the prime carve out has generated two years' worth of zero trend. We now, going into 'twenty seven, are looking at 6% trend over the two, because we took a significant downplay in pharmacy spend. It was about $3,000,000 And 2,000,000 of that was because they have the ability to connect to a program called Paid Health. And Paid Health seeks manufacturer's assistance for drugs, high cost drugs for members that qualify financially.

That savings this year for the district was $2,000,000 Our population is roughly half of that. So there's probably a million dollars sitting there in that. I will tell you, and I'm telling my clients this, that I believe that that is a sole source purchasing opportunity because it is the only vendor that our current TPA will allow us to carve out to. And furthermore, they offer paid health, which none of the big three will do. So it's the double whammy of that.

My personal perspective is that that's the first step in reducing the cost, trajectory of the cost for our plan for this year, meaning oneone. In addition to that, Aetna also connects to Prime. I don't know about UnitedHealthcare, but UMR does connect to Prime. So you wouldn't have to move it again if you chose to RFP Cigna for next year. With that, I'll call on you, Bob.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Charles, you mentioned your impromptu meeting in front of Starbucks, whatever day it was, and you asked the difference between these two programs. And and somewhere in your explanation, you said, looking at it, they seem very similar, if not almost the same. So with that, how do you judge if we're having success depending upon which one we go with, if they're both the same but different names.

Okay. So what I was the point I was making, and and I'm sorry, my trans my filter sometimes falls off

That's okay.

Because frustrating situations. But to me, cost plus is cost to Cigna plus an admin fee or something.

Mhmm.

So why would acquisition cost be different? What is that difference? Right? And that is yet to be fully defined, but they say that's different. What commissioner Her is talking about is the big three. Mhmm. CVS, Express Scripts, Optum kind of operate very similarly and don't have these other transparent levels or this other outreach. So that's how you see they're different. But last year, I think I don't know if we showed you the whole results from RFP, but, you know, there was all kind of differences.

I saw.

There was a lot of savings in some, but they were very new and very small, you know, and we want to be cautious. The integration is very important because what that mean, all of the co pays and costs to the member, both on pharmacy and medical, need to accumulate to the same out of pocket, if

you will.

And that's what Cigna won't allow with these other ones. They will do that with Prime. And we also want the the all the medical information and all that shared too. I hope I answered your question.

Kind of. Okay.

So acquisition plus is the most transparent of the contracts.

Yes.

You can see more of the fees in the acquisition plus than you can in the cost plus because cost is not what they purchased the drug for.

Correct.

And then on the other, they're not all necessarily doing it on all channels of distribution. So whether it's mail order, retail, or specialty pharmacy, some of those channels won't necessarily be full pass through. And this is it's changing. It's changing because of regulation. It's also changing because of fiduciary responsibilities. I would remind us that we have a fiduciary responsibility to manage the plan as cost effectively as we can on behalf of the members. There have been lawsuits about this. So I I think we need to take action sooner rather than later.

We wanna get to an environment where it is the cost the drugs cost the drug, and there's a fee per drug or per member, and it's all very clear to you, and we're not chasing rebates, but we're maximizing them.

Or as close to that as possible. Commissioner Zimbauer, you had your hand up earlier. No.

That answered all I needed to have answered so far.

Back to you.

So that's the state of the pharmacy. Medical carrier, you went with Cigna 11 of '23. It has, I think, been it has gone well. Nobody's perfect. No carrier is perfect.

They all have the challenge they all have their own challenges. We went into that evaluation in '22, I believe, with a committee that thought that, you know, we Florida Blue would probably perform well. And actually, in that scenario, which was now four years old, they finished fourth with Cigna number one, United two, Aetna three. What's different today? Well, we wouldn't know for sure unless we did an RFP, but what is uniquely different right now is that Aetna has an accountable care organization risk share arrangement deal with Orlando Health.

And while everybody has a version of that to some extent, theirs has been around for a long time. They are close to on par on discounts with, let's say, Advent, maybe not quite where some of the others are, but they are well better than par on the Orlando Health. They just won city of Orlando, which puts them to a second big account in this market. So that would be something that I know is unique if we go to RFP in the future. We would go through all the different carriers that the TPAs, third party administrator, would be not a carrier, but, Aetna owns Maritane, United owns UMR, there are other TPAs.

I have always been a under one bucket person in terms of stop loss pharmacy and medical. That world has evolved greatly. We have most of our self funded accounts are carved out for stop loss. We are have more and more accounts carved out for pharmacy. It's just the way to get the best deal under each situation and not have to shop the whole deal because of one problem.

So I guess, I think we'll get to recommendations, but this is the state of the land, if you will, right now. You have some very forward thinking things. You have prescription care management that it shows you your prescription cost at the top. But at the bottom, there have been 635 interventions and a per member per month savings of $2.40. This is changing prescriptions to a more appropriate or less cost effect or more cost effective drug.

This has been successful. Again, we have we have taken this idea and implement it with other clients. The second program you have is Goldfinch. This is a program to prevent opioid use, and it begins. Cigna provides a file feed twice a month. Elective surgeries are there. People are identified. If they're eligible and elect, we had 45% engagement. We're, I think, about the same for '26. This is for through '25.

The return on investment for every dollar spent is $2.20. Average return to work is nine point three days. So we've had 37 saved. Forty percent of members didn't use opioids at all. And then of the prescriptions filled, only three percent of the pills were used. This is a self reported statistic. So, you know, you have to see it for what it is, but this has been successful too. We've also implemented this with other clients. So we have things that we are doing. This may not be relevant today, but it was a lot of discussion last year on a clinic.

Clinics have evolved a lot over the years. There options. The option on the left, you could pay a vendor to build you a clinic and pay x amount per member per month for that to function whether the member goes or not. That's a form of what's called capitation. Seminole County Schools has a clinic down in Longwood that you could potentially piggyback on.

One of our clients who's Seminole County based True Health has actually been working to open a clinic at one of our clients and has done on-site physicals for other clients. So we are building that partnership as a and they're in network. So, ideally, you're you're all spread out. But if we could do some form for some form of clinic, we could do that. There are just multiple ways to do that. We have not done an RFP on that specifically.

Commissioners, would you like to provide input on that at this point or have Charles continue on?

Can I ask yes? I I got a question for Charles. So you stopped on this slide. You've asked made several statements, and then there was the pause. Are you suggesting we should be looking at clinics at this time, or just just for informational purposes only?

I think this is informational based on briefings and discussions that I've had.

Okay.

And I wanted to share with you the partnership with True Health that is like really kind of a great thing for our clients. True Health, while it serves under insured, uninsured, all of that, they are great clinics, and our clients who have chosen to use them as primary care physicians have been very happy. And so I'm saying, as we look to the future, this is a way to help everybody have a primary care physician. But as we'll get to the wellness, you have 90% participation. So people either have a primary care physician or are going somewhere to get that physical and blood work to be part of the wellness program.

So question with regard to True Health. If we investigated the opportunity with True Health, would that for anyone that uses the program and through telehealth, anyone that would use the telehealth portion of the program because he's laughing because he already knows where I'm going. Can I get 340B pricing on pharmacy?

We are negotiating that now and I'm not sure we'll get 340B but it would be great if we got 340B plus which would still better be better than non 340B. So what Commissioner Herz?

340B plus an administrative fee. So still transparent, because I'm not transferring the pharmacy problem now to the clinic.

Right. So these entities, called federally qualified health clinics get what's called three forty b drug pricing, which can be literally one or 2% of the drug cost. For the expensive drugs, can be 40 or 50%. So what we have not negotiated yet for our self funded clients is 340V pricing plus. We haven't negotiated. We are working on that. You yes. Commissioner.

So asking, you know, if we're interested in an RFP and going out, which I think is what you're asking, or pursuing, or, like, I don't I don't know what the next step would be if it's not that. I think anytime we make changes, we're asking people to change behaviors and change relationships. Not anytime. A lot of the time. We just talked about the fact that we still have the vast number of people on the high end health plan because it's probably what they know and they're willing to pay more just in order to keep with what they know and keep doing what they know and are comfortable doing and that there's a risk in changing and learning something new moving to the high deductible plan.

And so every time we talk about changing something even if it may be better for the plan and better for the plan participants to do something like a True Health clinic model or the Orlando Health piggyback with the school district model, you are anticipating that people are going to utilize it. So you're either going to force them to utilize it or you're going to incentivize them to utilize it, but you're going to have to do something to make the behavior change. And I think that is as much something that I would be curious about how you would plan to do that before I would ever say, yes, go please go look at it. Because to me that's in order for any of the math to work and there to be a return on that investment, you have to have willing participants. And so I'd love to know what that would look like before we would make any changes.

Mr. Lavarri?

I'd like to follow-up with Thank that, if I you, Madam Chair. So there's other clinics out there as well. Guidewell is another one. But there are some clinics that are out there associated with certain hospitals and certain healthcare institutions.

Right.

And so I'd want to understand that as well. So if and I agree with commissioner Lockhart by, is this the right time to put it out to bid? I don't think it is just yet. We need to understand the educational standpoint because I think that's just as important. But I want to also know the lay of the land about how the different relationships work on the health care side because there are relationships, and they're going to give you different prices depending upon who you've put on that team or who's in that team because they're all going to feed each other.

Yes. There are. The carriers have there are tons of urgent care centers. Right? And some of that game is they may or may not be owned by hospitals. They may be stand alone. They may look stand standalone. So those are not primary care. Our view of this would be to expand access to primary care and facilitate primary care physician relationships. We would typically have an incentive like a lower co pay or something like that.

So it's an enhancement. I just kind of wanted to give you an update because with different briefings we've kind of talked about it, what's here. So, no, I don't I don't even know you need to do an RFP. Like, we could we could explore partnerships, but we're trying to maximize access to care. That's the goal.

So are you trying to are you hinting around the access to care about having an on-site clinic so people can actually get quicker, better care on a regular basis instead of going to their primary care physician?

I I believe everybody should have a primary care physician. Okay. So the clinic would be to serve that, not to be another urgent care

So I'm asking.

Yes. They would have to be able to serve that. I'm not a fan of telehealth being able to do your physical, that's just me. But I'm kind of hardliner. I mean, that is the only way that somebody is gonna be aware of what their health status is and get the exams they need. But I too have gone to Centricare to get a physical to meet my wellness program years ago and never saw the doctor again. I apologize.

So you're just as guilty?

Not anymore.

Okay. It's crazy old.

Were you raising your hand?

No. No. No. I'll I'll reserve mine until the presentation's complete.

Mister Lockhart? Well, I think and we talked about this a little bit. Any if there is a way before we pull the trigger and the pain points that an RFP creates, not just for this organization and our staff time and effort, but for the responders who spend a lot of time and money responding to RFPs. If there is a way to do some type of a preliminary disruption report of if we were to move to this, would have only 50% of the current utilization of primary care physicians are on this new plan. That we have an idea of how many employees we would be impacting and what the disruption would be to our employee base, before even going out.

Is that a possibility, or is that

Absolutely. We can give you benchmark admin fee pricing. We can give you network overlap about disruption. We can get to some semblance of discount parity with the different hospital systems. And for self funded clients who have not shopped for years, that has been how we have moved the needle with the incumbent when needed.

So I'm not suggesting an RFP. It is a huge we do it. I get a little excited about it, but it is a big deal. As I may have briefed with some of you, when you do it, we want to show tremendous respect to the responders in terms of interviewing taking it seriously because we don't know when one of them will be our partner in the future. But you've got to balance disruption and cost, and I think there are things that can be done now to achieve cost, reduction without disruption.

I would like to see that Yeah. Before I would support pulling the trigger on making a firm indication of movement.

Okay. And and we will do that, and I'll work with Christina.

I'm just one person. Don't do it just for me. There may be others who like, I might be on the losing end of that Okay. That opinion, but that's just my opinion.

And so I think we just mixed apples and oranges, though. So I think that's with relationship to tPA or PBM. I think the clinic discussion is not a disruptor. It's an additional benefit, because you don't have to use the clinic ever. We would not I would not support that.

And so from the clinic perspective, I think what we need is a better education as to the models out there. This is the start of it. But there are pay to play models that are offered by hospital systems. There are no pay, and they file claims offered by hospital systems. There are the true health opportunity interesting, and then there's all sorts of other things popping up out there. I don't necessarily know that they move the needle in terms of cost to the plan. I really don't. But they do create an access point that's important, and they do, you know, ideally give a benefit to employees that's very worthwhile. So let me I would point out

that Well, let me be clear. I wasn't confusing them. So I wasn't suggesting that the RFP that we should I wasn't referring to the PBM. I was referring to the Cigna conversation. TPA,

which is The third party administration of the medical.

Yeah. But not yeah. So Right. I just I don't wanna I don't I I wanna make sure that what I said was what I said and not have it be misinterpreted if it was misinterpreted. So I believe that the TPA, Cigna, whatever, whoever it is that we're talking about looking at Aetna or some other group which was on a prior slide, I would like to see what the disruption is for that.

The pharmacy benefit thing I don't see as much of a disruption. To me that's a drug, where do I get my drugs from? That's not who do I trust for my primary care? I do believe that what you're talking about with trying to migrate employees to primary care at a True Health or some other type of clinic that's not an emergency, you know, minor emergency clinic, I do think that you're trying to migrate people to that and that is a change. That's the change that I'm talking about.

Okay. I view the Aetna TPA United, that bucket with medical and the network and the discounts, that's a bucket. The pharmacy is a bucket. I don't even envision migrating people to the clinic. It's an access point. I'm worried about the people that don't have a good primary care physician relationship or may have challenges accessing and could access from work. So it's an enhancement only in my view.

Okay. Then I completely understood your answer to Commissioner Dilawri, because I thought you were saying that you wouldn't be standing up the clinic in order for it to be

Urgent.

Urgent care. Right. That you were doing it for people to have access to a primary care physician.

It would kind of be both. Like I want the primary thing would be it would be a primary care physician access point. It would serve where people may need to go for something that's semi urgent, but you don't go to CentraCare for your primary care physician. It's kind of how I'm viewing it.

So I do think there was confusion in that. That was the confusion I was trying to end. The separation for so you can do a disruption report on a PBM. It is really not necessary because

That wasn't what asking for

at all. That's I'm agreeing with you. Judge Okay. Tanya I'm agreeing with you. With regard to the Aetna discussion, a disruption of report I actually have it written down that we should be asking for that ahead of time, including a savings projection, including a claims reprice that they do, would be a good idea, because we would need to have some indication as to what the value of this would be.

But with regard to the clinic, it is in addition to typically zero co pay, and we cannot purchase a model whereby we're spending other governments that I am well aware of spend a million dollars on the clinic, and then the behavior is to try to drive people in there to justify the million dollars. That is not a good system, and so it has to be stood up in a way, and there's a couple options out there, I think, already that would do that, that doesn't necessitate disruption. It's incented behavior that if that's a good place to receive primary care for you, then you go. But it's not a disruption because your primary care physician didn't come out of the network. It just has to make sense from a cost perspective,

I just which is want to know difficult how bad we're going to be screwing up people's world.

I've got it. I've got the network disruption and I've added because I would want to know I would want to give you the price different I would give you discount different I'd want to give you a lot of information, but the network disruption, the member disruption is huge.

Commissioner I'm sorry. Commissioner Zinbauer?

I think I've tracked it. I'm good. A lot of conversation, not so sure everybody's still on the same page, but I've I've pulled enough nuggets out. I understand what commissioner Lockhart's indicating. I'll reserve mine to the end. Thank you.

I want to expand a little bit on something Commissioner Herz said about that you pay a lot of money for a clinic and then you try to get people to use it. I'm a spreadsheet guy. You know, I live in a little world of Excel spreadsheets. And for the proposed clinic model where you pay a per member per month charge, I've done multiple evaluations looking at all you would get for that per member per month charge compared to what was actually spent for all those things under the current program. And to this day, I've not found one that it costs more to spend it the way it is now.

That's just, you know and salespeople don't always like it when I say that, but I mean, make the numbers work. I'm not gonna advise you to spend money something you shouldn't. Okay. This I thought would be the shortest slide, but it was a longer slide. Your wellness program, again, you have a great wellness program.

I don't I would love it if people loved it, but wellness is not about being happy. Wellness is about getting people to take care of themselves. So your program, they have to have an annual physical, hopefully they're happy too, annual physical and labs, and those are the entry. And then you have multiple other options with Cigna that you can get a total of five points. And if you get that by the date seventhirty onetwenty six, you're all set for the '27 plan year.

We're at 90% participation. There are all kind of ways to get your points. This it this carriers have their own wellness portals, if you will. Yours is called motivate me. Motivate me that we've educated everybody about is has been sunsetted, and we've got now our kind of second exception to keep it.

So if there's any RFPs in the future, I would be a proponent of having a wellness vendor portal, everything that is agnostic to whatever carrier you have. That's just my opinion because at some point in the next year, we're gonna have to reeducate everybody about a different Cigna program, about how they access and get points and stuff like that, FYI. But this is mainly to say you have a great program. These are all the communications from human resources out to people. I know people don't always read everything, but we do everything possible to be sure people understand what they need to do in advance.

We help them access doctors if they need to. I'm a proponent of your wellness program, and we just want to enhance it as we look at this, just enhancing, like a culture. It would be great if we had a culture where this was a topic people talked about, and you know, they were excited to participate in things, and they have been. It's very interesting. I think there was a there've been a couple of different nights that wouldn't be wellness per se, but they were part of the wellness program, and there was high engagement of people coming together.

They knew it was wellness. They learned some things. So we have a three year strategy on that, And from a recommendation standpoint, back to the RFP, an RFP for something like Cigna, the administrator, would start in February '27 for a decision by June by you all for 01/01/2028. So that would be and and then there's the evaluation we can do before to see if you even wanna do it. Okay?

And then the PBM, we would if you we do we can do a PBM RFP. We would do them separately. That would be the normal time frame. We it's not undoable to go another route for 01/01/2027 on the PBM part. So I think we are asking for a recommendation on what to do in these two areas, and it doesn't have to be I'm not asking today. We wanna tell me we want to do an RFP for medical in '27 for '28. I'm not asking for that. It sounds like I've been asked to provide more information to staff on that. And then kind of where are you on the PBM?

Commissioner Zinbauer?

Yes, please. Can we go to slide three, please? So my question is, if we go to let's take the twenty eighteen numbers and the twenty twenty five numbers. If you take the $12.42 in 2018 net per employee per month, And cumulative in those years is about 28% cost of living increases. You get $1,600 in 2025.

If you if you apply the 28%, it comes to $15.89. So I'm not so sure that the cost increase has been that exponential as indicated initially. So my question really is, if I take the 2025 numbers, 2018 numbers, the one that really stands out to me that I'd like an answer on is the net total of stop loss reimbursements is far different than the cost of living increase between those years as compared to the net employee cost. Why?

I would have to look back and see the stop loss reimbursements in each year to to isolate that difference. There would be a number of large claimants. I never like to see the jump from 2014 to twenty fifth twenty twenty three to 2024. I can divide back over the number of years, and it definitely you're ahead of the game, if you will. But these last two years have concerned me. Several commissioners I've met with. Mister Chex over here. The so I will research what was behind the stop loss reimbursements in those years.

I don't think I understood the question. So we're if we look at 2018 I'm gonna do very rough math. We got a million dollars of stop loss reimbursements because the 21,000,000 is net. It's the difference between the '22 and the '21. So about I'm looking

at $28 to $25 2018 to $20.25.

The $21,000,000 to $31,000,000 Yes. And so the reason it's broken down on a per employee per month is you've grown from $14.59 to $16.26. So I want to look at what has that been on a per That's employee the part

that's not in the slide.

Well, it's you can't go from $21,000,000 to $31,000,000 because your starting point also went from $22,000,000 the total, up to $32,000,000 So your exposure got bigger. That's the increase in cost over the years. So that's the gross amount that was paid out in claims that year. And there were reimbursements from stop loss. And if you look at the difference, we're getting about $1,000,000 a year back in stop loss.

Some years it's $05,000,000 very rough math. So the stop loss reimbursements have and we haven't changed our deductible for a long time. I think we did when we did the RFP, but not for a long time. Stop loss reimbursements have stayed pretty consistent. What's not consistent is that it's the underlying risk that is continuing to go up.

And part of that is unit cost hospitals, doctors, etcetera, more, drugs going up considerably, technology, new programs coming onto the market. We're now doing hip replacement surgeries at a rate that we never thought possible. We're now curing obesity through drugs that we didn't our plan doesn't cover that, by the way, but they're now used for diabetes. All of those things that are happening within the stop loss market, within the nonstop loss market. The reason the stop loss market has gone crazy is because we're now curing genetic disorders through drugs that never existed before.

Understand It's amazing. What you're saying, but the the growth is not 28%, which is the cost of living increase from 2018 to 2025, like it is in the net per employee per month cost, which has grown 28%.

Because the underlying risk has gone up. Stop loss isn't protecting you from the stuff that the stop loss doesn't cover.

Okay.

That's that's why we're we have to look at options. You've you've nailed it.

Right. Alright. 10. Slide 10, if you would. So this is I understand what was indicated here. This is a good return on investment, etcetera, etcetera. What is this program costing us, and how have we compared it to not having a plan at all, and what that looks like?

The cost of the plan is funded through Cigna wellness dollars. So Cigna gives you several buckets of money, and they pay the cost of the program. So it's no money out of your pockets out of that bucket.

Understand. But compared to not doing this, what are the stats?

If you didn't In other words,

how do we know that our employees would not be doing this themselves anyway

I don't

when it comes to opioids?

I don't I don't think I I don't know that answer. And so the statistic, like, really would be what is the opioid use generally. Right. You know, how many what percentage use them at all, and if there's a way to find out what percent what percentage of the actual prescription do they use.

And and that sort of drills down to my question, which is we're making a statement this is a good return on investment, but yet we don't know what the activity or behavior of our people would be otherwise. Right. So That's the biggest question I had on that.

So I actually abused this program, so I'm going to use myself as the example.

Did you say use or abuse?

I used the program. Okay. And there's no yet reason to abuse the program. The surgical protocol matters when you're trying to do an opioid free experience or a narcotics free experience. The way you prep for the surgery matters.

A patient would never know to do the different prep than to do the Your prep that's recommended by doctors tell you no food or drink twenty four hours ahead of time. This program educates you otherwise. And there's also a different level of pain treatment that happens for the surgery, during the surgery, and a different type of surgery that can take place. In my instance, I went to two surgeons, and I know how to navigate the health care system, and they would not have done the surgery the way it was done. They would not have given me this pain protocol.

I drove past five hospitals to get to the hospital where the surgeon did it, and I was back at work the next day. Five very small incisions in my belly, a gallbladder removed, and took Tylenol and NSAIDs. I would never have known to do that, and the providers are not telling you how to do that. So that is, I don't think patients could figure this out.

I will research what the underlying norm is. Anecdotally, the underlying norm is you get a big bottle of pills and hopefully have enough forethought to not take them or get addicted. And just in my career, I've seen people that I never would have thought would have struggled with that, leadership people. You don't know how it's gonna affect you. So I'm anecdotally a believer, but go ahead, commissioner. Sorry. Yes.

So I think I would like to see numbers put to percentages. That would be helpful. Because I would like to know how many people, how many lives we're are being asked to are being given the opportunity to participate? How many? I see the engagement rate's 45%, but like what number is that?

If you

have it, if you don't

I do. So I wanna be sure what year we're talking about. Bear with me one second. So 2526, there were 59 opportunities, 27 engaged. So that's the 40 something percent. That's over two years. The first chart is 45% and I would have to scroll through my email to get the exact numbers. So there are people identified who are eligible. There are some surgeons, some people aren't eligible.

The 59 are the 59 that were identified and reached out to. And of those 59, 27 were eligible or 27 actually engaged?

Agaged.

27 engaged. And then how how so even though it's money out of wellness, how much did that did that cost? A dollars. It's

$1,000 per person.

So we pay so it was the it'd be the on the '27, not on the 59?

Correct. Yep. 27,000. Correct.

Okay.

And the reason I I further asked that question is there has been, as we all know, a huge spotlight shined on opiates and the use of them in surgical interventions and follow-up treatments and so forth to the point that you look at a lot of studies now, a large majority of medical providers are not providing those type of medications. And if they are, it's a two or three day supply with no refills following unless you come back in for another valuation. It's the reason I asked that, whether it's money well spent. So the number is $27,000 Is that $27,000 better spent somewhere else, those wellness dollars? And I don't know the answer to that question ultimately.

But getting to, I think, Commissioner Lockhart's statement of the disruption to our employees, you know, some of the things I think we're going to continue to struggle with as we see primary care providers and sole practitioners in smaller practices now being absorbed into major medical hospital systems and other medical operations, There's always a disruption to some extent going from your primary care who may have done things a certain way in their own practice, but now they're operating under the arches of another operation, which may have different rules and protocol and so forth that they were going to follow. Or, like many of them have decided, they just get out of the business, that they're no longer practicing medicine, and that's unfortunate. So I think there's going to be a continued disruption there. But at the end of the day, for what you're asking for, I would like to see some numbers, further information before we ever decide to go out to an RFP. I think we've got a lot of groundwork to do.

I'd like to see a lot of numbers for me to make decisions on what that could look like.

Commissioner, I want to thank you for bringing up that point of the primary care physician being purchased by the hospital systems. That is an underlying reason for the clinic discussion and the True Health partnerships, because from what we are seeing, there is no easy transition for existing patients and even harder access for people who don't have a doctor. Thank you. Should have said that before.

I'm now on my third, because I won't go to the corporate folks, but that's a whole other story.

Any other comments, commissioners? Yes, commissioner sorry, commissioner Constantine?

Go ahead.

No. You

I'm just going to say that I learned a long time ago that there's some things that you just don't know as well as others. And so the conversation today was wonderful, but I think that and I'm glad all of you brought it up, and I understand that, Commissioner Herd, this is where you've been all your life, and there are certain things that I do all my life that I hope you all listen to me as much as I'm listening to you right now. And all I'm gonna say is the stat the recommendation is basically, you know, getting the county manager to bring back recommendations. So I'm more than happy to do that, you know, to make that. I'm not making the motion, if others have something to say, but and I don't even know if we need a motion.

We just have a consensus. But thank you very much, all of you, for this because you've all brought up great points, but, I think that, this is just preliminary. And, clearly, we have a good program, but we also have to be cognizant of the increased costs and everything. And, therefore, I'm I'm looking to our and you hate to say this in medical, I'm looking to our budget people to come back with some good ideas where that balance comes together.

That's it.

Lockhart? I was just reflecting back on the discussion about the fact that Cigna is only, the integration with the pharmacy benefit is only with what was it, started with an A?

They're the big three plus Prime.

Oh, plus Prime. Yes. Okay. So they will integrate with of With the

Aetna's Got it.

Okay. United's All I heard was the Prime. Okay. Got it. Thank you.

I do have one other question, maybe, along when staff brings us information. I'm not against understanding if there are some benefit and costs to a multiyear scenario with a cap of increase each year, say, over a three to five year period of time, if that even exists. I don't know the answer to that. I would say based on the provider or the servicer provider would be based on what their actually revenue is off of that client and what it looks like the growth could be over three to five years. Because this to Commissioner Lockhart's point, this is always a disruptive issue with our staff.

When you change medical providers, it's getting used to the new system. They do things slightly different. Claims are handled a little bit different. You're not accustomed to this. So there's a whole learning curve. Prescriptions cost different? Right. It's a whole thing. So when staff brings it back, I'd like to understand if there is, if it even exists, a multiyear with a maximum increase year to year deal.

Do you want me to cut to the chase on that? Are you waiting for me to say? Know what

you're going tell me.

What the industry is doing.

Yes, it's an administrative fee guarantee and where our costs lie is in our utilization of the plan and the claims.

Understood. Yes. Charles, commissioner Zimbauer hinted about something about, you know, primary care or doctors being a part of larger groups and hospitals, and that's a big issue. And what I've come to learn is that, you know, when they start billing with, you know, RVUs, that's a whole another aspect of it. And, you know, you really want the patient time with the doc. And some of them are just basically and I may get some phone calls, but, know, it's all about the RVUs. You know, how much can they bill? And there's an issue there, and that's the whole industry. That's what this is all about.

There are many, many, many challenges.

I understand that, and I'm not trying to

Yeah.

Tell you to reinvent the system because it's impossible. But, you know, then it's private equity firms that are jumping in. I mean, it just there's a whole we could talk about this for days.

Yes, we could.

I'm just being honest about it.

No. It's true.

A day doesn't go by they don't have a private equity conversation in some industry. Correct.

I'm just I mean, that's the bottom line. Yes. How much can they

bill? Any other comments?

Well, we do have an old hospital building here that

I'm gonna stop you.

Well, we also have a morgue in it, so let's not just go

down that route.

Go down that path. So I think what we heard was that we wanna see the potential disruption in addition to potential cost with the approaches that you shared. I'm going to add to that that I think in this year's budgeting session, we have historically had benefits kind of buried up under a bucket of funds, and it needs to come to light because those numbers are significant increases. And that may actually call out to us at least acknowledgment of where we are versus where we're going and what action needs to be taken. And with that, I'll look to County Manager.

Do you think you have enough direction from this discussion? Yeah.

I know Charles has taken great notes and Christina, so we'll circle back and then we'll follow back up with the Board. And that what my plan was around the budget work session time to really talk about this budget. I mean the medical benefits fund that we have, we've already been working on that now with Mr. Jeck. So that too will be coming up in a couple of months.

All right. Well, you. Thank you very much for the presentation. Thank Thanks for indulging us.

It's

always a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you, guys.

You. Is it really though?

I think we pay him

to say that. I was waiting to see

if he You after used to say that, so yes. I lied too. I lied

You lied with the death

of those. Yep. Alright. Next up is the extension of the Seminole County City of Sanford Joint Planning Agreement, JPA, and this is going to be presented by Tricia Johnson.

Thank you, Madam Chairman, Commissioners. Today we're here to talk about the extension of the county, city of Sanford JPA. Our agenda today, purpose, background, coordination and status, feedback, and next steps. The team really working on this has been Mike Rhodes, Dagmarie, and Nasa. And so I may ask call on them if we have any specific or technical questions.

So the purpose of today's presentation is really to provide an overview on the county's j JPA with the city of Sanford, our status and coordination, summarize some potential priority focus areas, outline next steps, and requested board action. So the original JPA was executed on October 1535, and was amended in 2018. The purpose is really to coordinate planning efforts, particularly land use, annexation, and infrastructure service delivery within the joint planning area. The JPA expired in October 2025, which is why we are here today. Staff from the county and the city of Sanford restarted coordination meetings in January.

We agreed on an extension first approach to present to our respective commissions, meaning a short term extension with an additional six month option while we work on a new agreement. The key topic areas identified include annexation, infrastructure coordination, enclave strategies, and the East Lake Mary Boulevard corridor. In March, as you know, we briefed each of you to receive your feedback. In your packet behind the PowerPoint slides is a two page document that provides an overview of the feedback we received during those meetings. I will go over it a bit here, but it is more detailed in your packet.

Based on those individual briefings, there's general support for a short term extension that looks like six months in the agreement that is part of the board book. And then a six month extension is also an option. But really what we heard from you is that support is tied to continued progress and a clear path forward with a new agreement. You also emphasized several priority focus areas for an updated agreement, including infrastructure and maintenance. There was a strong emphasis on clearly defining responsibilities, particularly roadway ownership and maintenance, storm water systems, and coordination of utilities.

There was also an interest in addressing emergency management coordination and establishing fair cost sharing approaches between the county and the city. Regarding utilities and capacity, the importance of long term planning was expressed for water supply, sewer capacity, and overall system reliability, including considerations around water quality and future demand. Regarding annexation and enclaves, there was a desire for more coordinated and strategic approach, particularly around how enclaves are addressed and how annexation decisions are sequenced to avoid fragmentation and service inefficiencies. Regarding the East Lake Mary Boulevard corridor, commissioners emphasized the need to align on roadway capacity, access management, and land use compatibility given the growth pressures and the importance of that corridor. There was also an interest in ensuring stronger coordination with the airport authority, including issues related to land use compatibility, required disclosures, and of potential impacts.

Land use considerations, the importance of addressing county owned properties, opportunities for affordable housing, and ensuring that the community input remains part of the planning process. And finally, on process and structure, there's a strong emphasis on having a clear timeline, a phased and outcome driven approach, and maintaining flexibility, potentially using separate agreements when appropriate to address specific issues. With respect to next steps, we will continue with ongoing coordination meetings with the city if we move forward with the short term extension of the JPA today. Our next meeting is April 21. We'll talk about the scope and structure of the updated JPA based on your direction.

This includes coordinating policy language, red lines and supporting technical materials. The short term extension will allow our team to maintain continuity while we work through a phased approach toward a comprehensive update. And of course, we will provide the county manager and this board with ongoing updates throughout the process. So our requested action of you today is twofold. First, approve a second amendment to extend the JPA to 10/15/2026, allowing then for an additional six month administrative extension if necessary.

Second bullet really is related to that list that we provided in your packet. If there's anything that we missed in your briefings, we wanna make sure that we add that information so that we can bring it back to the city of Sanford to begin our discussions. And with that, our team is available for questions.

Commissioners? I have no questions.

I think the briefings have been incredibly helpful. We've been able to give feedback, receive input from staff, kind of have an idea of where things are in terms of working with the City of Sanford. Thank you, as always, for working with our partners. I think there are three of us on the board that represent parts of the City of Sanford. The city is divided up among three of us in terms of representation. So certainly, not that we don't all have an interest, but three of us at least have very intent interests in how this moves forward. So thank you.

Madam Chair? Commissioner Dolores?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I like the idea of a three month extension, but I'd like to get monthly updates

Six from months.

Sorry. Six month extension. I'd like to get monthly update, and I think it'd behoove us so we can actually see the progress. That was it.

That's a great suggestion.

So I'll move to approve second amendment to extend the JPA to 10/15/2026, allowing for additional six month administrative suspension.

Second.

Does that include the

With monthly updates. Monthly updates? Sure.

Second. Yeah.

Including monthly updates.

Any further discussion? All those in favor? All right. Public comment public comment. Any public comments?

No, ma'am. There's nobody here.

We're gonna close public comments. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, it passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you for the work you're doing on this as well. I do wanna point out that I do not believe this document is in the electronic version not. No. Yeah. So We

haven't added

it this morning. Well, we'll add it.

Yep. In the for the record category. Okay. All right. I think we are concluded to recess until 01:30. So we are almost at an hour and a half lunch.

Great. Good job. Great. Great.

Good afternoon, Seminole County. I heard one good afternoon back. I thought possibly with all those folks that may or may not be from the school that when I say good afternoon. Good afternoon. Afternoon. There we go. That's the way

Thank to introduce you.

Good teaching.

Thank you. That's probably the last time I'll ever be accused of that. All right. We are going to kick off the afternoon session with the quarterly employee service recognition. This is our favorite thing to do in the quarter. Christina Brandolini at the podium.

Good afternoon, Chairman and Commissioners, back again. You guys are probably sick of seeing me up here this morning. But this afternoon, we have the pleasure of recognizing several employees for their service to Seminole County. And I actually am, happy to start today's recognition with one of my own. So Elizabeth Dean, human resources coordinator, has twenty years of service. So I'm gonna be multitasking with this one.

So Elizabeth, can you come out?

Alright. So

he said I haven't I haven't I had to figure out the multitasking before. But Elizabeth began her career with the county in January 2006 as an executive assistant in the county manager's office. Since 2015, she has been the friendly voice on the other end of the human resources mainline and serves as our personnel file and public records extraordinaire. When she isn't assisting employees with ID badges and completing employment verifications, she spends time with her husband, Danny, who is here, their her four kids and seven grandkids. She enjoys boating with their dog, Dudley, and their 20 year old cow moon moonay cat, Boo. So I had to learn how to say that word. So so congratulations. How many? How many? Okay.

Well, congratulations. I was worried about my multitasking, so I forgot to mention that once we get through everybody, then we'll do photos at the end. Next, we have Chris Stronco, Animal Services Division Manager, who will be recognizing Albert Adams, program manager for animal services for twenty years of service.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'd like to take a

moment to recognize Al Adams. Al Adams started with animal services in 2006 as an animal control officer. And since then, he's held just about every management position there is within animal services and done a fine job at that. He continues right now in his role as a special projects manager, and he handles most of our forward facing events and does a great job at that. That's a new assignment for him.

For a second, though, I'd like to talk about the man. Al is a leader in his church. He's a leader of, wonderful children, all successful children. Al is a is a great person out of work just as he is at work. And I'd just like to bring that to everybody's attention that Al really contributes to the community around him and that, that's a that's a great thing to have an employee that does it on both sides of the fence. So, man. Congratulations.