Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Morning Seminole County. Not as good as when the kids from the elementary school are here for something, but you guys rallied for me. Welcome to the Board of County Commissioners meeting, Tuesday, April 28. If you would, please silence all of your electronic devices. I have neglected to say that until now in my term as chairman, so I know commissioner Zembauer is proud of me for that. And usually, I'm the one that leaves it on. So if you would, turn them off. That would be fabulous.

Does that include Lee Constantine?

It does include commissioner Constantine. Yes. This morning, we It was his we will start with an invocation by Megan Killingsworth from the First United Methodist Church of Sanford. And before you start, pastor, I would like to say that in Seminole County, we do thank God for organizations like yours. You are a cold weather shelter for us. And as you know, this year, we had more cold weather than we could count, and you housed more people than we could have possibly asked for. We are eternally grateful to you and your organization. Thank you. With that, please take it away.

Oh God, our creator and redeemer and sustainer, the source of all that is good, right, and holy, we thank you for the opportunity to gather this morning and to do the work that it is to care well for our community and for our neighbor. We pray that in all the places in the corners of this county that you have called these public servants, that you might equip them, that you might encourage them, and that you might give them the energy to continue the good work that you have called them to do. On the most difficult days, we pray that you would hold up their arms when they are tired, that you might help them to know there are many people who not only count on their work but who benefit from all of the choices that they make. And God, remind us on the best days and the worst that your measurement of the impact of our lives will not be the highest heights to which we ascended, but the lowest depths to which we kneel to care for our most vulnerable neighbor. All this we ask in your name.

Amen. Amen.

Thank you. And now we'll have our own Stephen Lerner lead us in the pledge from our emergency management team. Thank you.

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

you, pastor, and thank you, Steven. County manager deputy county manager, we're happy to have you here today, Tricia. Today is Darren's birthday. I'm gonna withhold on asking you all to sing happy birthday to him because I'm not sure that will go as well as we may expect. But happy birthday, Darren. Are there any additions or deletions from the agenda? Yes. Two items, item number six and item number 10, have been pulled from today's agenda for further evaluation. They will be put on a future agenda. Thank you, commissioners.

Six and ten.

Six and ten. Commissioners, anything you wish to pull? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion.

I'll move to approve item number five through nine.

Oh, hold on a

minute. Proclamations.

Well, we that's no. We so hold on. We'll we'll wait on consent. That is that is the order on which it's on the agenda. Let's do awards and presentations. Are the Dudas here? I don't believe they have arrived. We They're

a few minutes out yet.

Okay. Thank you. So we'll start with the first one, and then we may go back to consent. We'll come back. So we have a proclamation being read by commissioner Constantine proclaiming May as public service recognition week in Seminole County.

And for the 1,600 members of our team, congratulations. Thank you very much and for the honor to make a motion to approve the proclamation of the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners proclaiming May 3 through 05/09/2026 as Public Service Recognition Week in Seminole County, Florida. Whereas Public Service Recognition Week has been nationally celebrated during the May since 1985 to honor the dedicated individuals who serve communities at the federal, state, and local levels. And whereas the week of May 3 through 05/09/2026 has been designated across the nation as public service recognition week to recognize the important contributions of public servants and their essential role in supporting and strengthening communities. And whereas Seminole County is home to more than 1,600 hardworking, mission driven public servants who provide essential service that protect and enhance the quality of life for residents, businesses, and visitors each day.

And whereas county employees serve in diverse and highly skilled professions, maintaining infrastructure, supporting public safety, managing resources, promoting economic opportunity, protecting natural lands, and delivering responsive consumer service that sustain the well-being of our community. And whereas in times of crisis, public service employees stand on the front lines, often at personal risk, responding to emergencies, safeguarding the public, and helping public and helping Seminole County recover from natural disasters and unforeseen challenges. And whereas Seminole County's public servants demonstrate professionalism, integrity, and steadfast commitment to their duties, reflecting the best public service and contributing significantly to the strength, security, and resilience of our community. And whereas the dedication and continued service of these employees exemplify the noble calling of public service without which the delivery of vital government functions would be impossible. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by we, the board of county commissioners of Seminole County, Florida, do hereby proclaim May 3 through 05/09/2026 as public service recognition week.

Second.

First in motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Hearing none opposed, passes unanimously. Madam I'm

not sure who's here on behalf of all of our 1,600 employees to accept this proclamation, but I just wanna say thank you for the incredible work that you do every single day, having been a county employee for many years prior to deciding to do this. I don't know what I was thinking. I I know full well the job that you do and how hard it is, and I I commend you, and I am grateful for you every single day. The the people of this county see the five of us, but we are here to just help the county manager make decisions, and and it's the county manager and his team's job to help make the work that you do be meaningful for our citizens every single day. So thank you.

A proclamation is is just not enough. Appreciate you.

Madam chair? Yes. Commissioner Constantine.

Thank you. And as Commissioner Lockhart said, she and I both have shared a long a lot of time in public service at both the employee level as well as an elected level. All three of my fellow colleagues, in addition, have all served in public service for a considerable amount of time. I just want you to know that I started in my early twenties at the University of Central Florida. And although I've always maintained another income job, you know, in in my my personal business, The fact of the matter is is that public service is a calling, one that is and should be well respected and one that I I I as I said, it's it's a calling that is so meaningful.

People many times just don't understand how important the job that you all do is. And just know that when you get up every single day and go out and do your job, it's so meaningful. Whether they know it or not, it is so meaningful to the people that we serve. Thank you very

much. Commissioner Zandauer.

I wanna thank many of you who allowed me to come out and work side by side with you a couple years doing my dirty jobs tour. And I think that if people were able to see what each and every one of you do in the extra mile many of you go on behalf of our citizens, we always hear the concerns and the complaints from residents, and we don't always hear the good things and the attaboys and attagirl things that we probably should, but I will tell you that I'm very grateful for the work that each and every one of you do on behalf of the citizens of this county. We often see negativity in in government and statements about government workers that are not in the best light, but I would assure our public that our staff is working twenty four seven in the right direction. Our citizens are getting the best bang for their buck, trust me. So we appreciate everything you do to make us all look good.

Thank you.

Mister DeLaury.

Thank you, madam chair. I'm not gonna repeat the what my fellow commissioner said, but I'd like to take it in a different direction. Many times, for you to do your job, your family has to sacrifice. There are many times that you have to work not only late, but on the weekends. You have to miss birthdays and celebratory events or holidays.

There's many times that you have to tell your family that even though you need something to do at home, you have to do something at work or you have to do something to the community. So from that perspective, not only I wanna say thank you to you all, I wanna say thank you to your families. And it's not just your spouses, it's your extended families for missing all those times that you were expected to be there, but you had other duties to do because you have a calling of public service. So thank you for your hard work, your dedication, and loyalty to the citizens of this county. Thank you.

Thank you. And I do think Christina Brandolini, the leader of our HR department, will be in the picture with you, but is not going to give us any words from the microphone. From my perspective, I would tell you that this is a appreciating you is a three sixty five day a year event. And we are intended to be servant leaders on this board, and that often becomes very difficult in the role that we serve because it's an odd role. This running for office and doing this role is the craziest thing most people will ever do.

But I would encourage our teams that if there are ways that we can be better servant leaders, you should let us know. And with that, I see members of the Duda family in the audience, and we will move on to the next item, item number two, which is a resolution celebrating the hundredth anniversary of A. Duda and Sons Incorporated. Commissioner Zembawer will be reading this.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As we reflect upon this, it's not lost on me as a businessman that we don't often see businesses that, especially small businesses, survive a hundred years, nonetheless, ten, twenty, fifty, but a hundred years. So it is my great pleasure to introduce this resolution to Seminole County Board of County Commissioners celebrating the hundredth anniversary of A. Duda and Sons Incorporated. Whereas A.

Duda and Sons Incorporated, Duda, was founded in 1926 by Andrew Duda, a Slavic immigrant who established a celery farm in Central Florida. That same year, Andrew and his three sons, John, Andrew Junior, and Ferdinand harvested their first cash crop of celery and formally established A. Duda and Sons, launching what would become a significant agriculture enterprise rooted in the rich farmlands of Oviedo in Seminole County. And whereas Seminole County, once known as the celery capital of the world, provided the fertile foundation for Duda's early growth, and the company played an integral role in shaping the region's agricultural heritage and economic development. And whereas, Duda's long standing presence in and around Lake Jessup and the surrounding rural communities helped define the character and growth of Southeastern Seminole County, contributing to its farming legacy and long term commitment to responsible land stewardship.

And whereas over the past century, Duda has grown from a small family farm into a nationally recognized diversified company, all while maintaining deep ties to Seminole County and upholding the family values and principles that guided its founding generations. And whereas, Duda's dedication to responsible land management, environmental stewardship, and thoughtful development reflects its enduring respect for the natural resources and the quality of life that defines Seminole County. And whereas for five generations, the Duda family has demonstrated leadership, innovation, sustainability, and community engagement, carrying forward a legacy that began in Seminole County and continues to positively influence the region today. Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, the Board of County Commissioners of Seminole County, Florida, do hereby recognize and celebrate the hundredth anniversary of A. Duden and Sons Incorporated and extends our sincere appreciation for the company's historic and ongoing contributions to not only the agricultural heritage, economic vitality, environmental stewardship of Seminole County, adopted this twentieth day, April twenty twenty six.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Commissioners, all those in favor? Aye. Hearing none opposed, it passes unanimously. Congratulations on the wonderful success of

the Board of State County.

We would welcome you to come up and say a few words, please. And do introduce yourselves for the record.

Sure. Thank you. I'm Tracy Duda Chapman. I'm a fourth generation family member and our senior vice president and chief legal and administrative officer. We really thank you for this proclamation. It's an exciting time in the company's history. We've been celebrating with our employees who really make us great, so it's kind of interesting that you had the proclamation recognizing the Seminole County employees because we all know without great employees, you don't survive for a hundred years. So we're really thankful, and I thank you all on behalf of

the Duda family and the

Duda company. And you know, our purpose as a company is to multiply and share God's blessings, and we try to do that every day in the communities where we operate, and Seminole County is obviously an important part of our company history, and our headquarters is here, and I don't see it moving anytime soon. So thank you so much again.

Thank you.

Thank you as well. Thank you. We would love to welcome you to come down and take pictures, please. We'll come down to the floor. We'll take yours first.

All right. Well, I feel like we're going from fun and frolic to the audit presentation, which may not be the best setup for our, mister Joel Knopp, CPA and audit partner, and Jenny Spencer to present. Welcome to the podium.

Good morning, commissioners. First, I'd like to start off by thanking all of you and the clerk for the confidence that you have have in me as a director of the comptroller's office. And I'd like to acknowledge county staff. We couldn't have done this without their cooperation, oftentimes within short notice that they have to respond and provide support. With that, I'd like to turn it over to Joel Knopf, the audit partner, who will present the audit results. If there are specific questions related to the audit, I'm more versed in it, so I'll answer those questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jenny. Madam Chair and Commissioner, it's a pleasure to be here and present the highlights of the audit for fiscal year ended 09/30/2025. Just a few slides to briefly cover. We provided a required communication letter to the board, which goes through our required elements under professional standards. If there were, potential issues and how the audit went, if we didn't get full cooperation, we'd communicate those matters.

But fortunately, it was a smooth audit. We got full cooperation. And as Jenny mentioned, it really is a team effort from both county staff and clerk finance. So another key element here, there were no audit adjustments identified in our audit. So that is also an important element as it indicates there's good internal controls over the financial reporting.

All adjustments were appropriately made before we received the trial balance for audit. Our reports, you'll find throughout the document, the primary report on the financial statements is on pages one through three. We issued an unmodified opinion, which is a clean opinion that the numbers are presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. And then towards the back of the document, there's a number of compliance related reports. One under government audit standards, which we look at internal controls over financial reporting and compliance significant to the financial statements.

That was a clean report as well. No significant deficiencies or material weaknesses noted. We also look at investment compliance as well as expenditures of E-nine 11 fees. Is required by the auditor general. This was also a clean report, no compliance findings. The next report is a management letter, also required by the auditor general. We did have one recommendation related to reporting and specific to the grants particular. We did not deem it to be a significant finding. It wasn't a significant reporting requirement, but it was something that is required. So, we made a recommendation there that there be an improvement over policies and procedures there.

And that was once identified and immediately corrected the issue. So, no concerns there going forward from our perspective. The last report there is on the major federal grants and major state grants. Again, this would significant work involved here. There were four federal grants, three state grants that we tested in great detail.

And there were no compliance findings and no control findings over compliance, so clean reports there. Just a few financial statement highlights to point out. If you look at the front of the financial statements, you'll find accounting wide analysis. So, this is focused on full accrual accounting. This includes all the long term liabilities of the county, including pensions and OPEB, as well as all the capital assets that the county invests in.

So, if you look at this statement, the unrestricted net position is negative for governmental activities. Again, that's due to the long term pension liabilities. This is consistent with many counties across the state. And you'll see significant investment in capital assets there of almost $1,000,000,000 at the end of the year. The general fund is the main operating fund of the county.

Certainly, a focus for financial stability. The unassigned fund balance was $82,000,000 at the '25. That represented nineteen point seven percent of total expenditures and transfers out. So it's still a healthy number. It was a decrease of in total for the general fund of 28,000,000 but, that was not to be I'm sorry, I think 23,000,000. My eyes are low. 20. 28. Okay. Thank you.

That was budgeted decrease, so, nothing to be, concerned about there. And I think the county's already made adjustments going into fiscal year twenty six, so we don't expect that to continue. On the budget side, the county was in compliance with budgets, so no concerns to note there. And then business type activities, the primary operating or primary business type activity of course is the water and sewer fund. Solid waste is also presented here.

There's some non major enterprise funds including the golf course that aren't included here. But just to keep an eye on here is the operating income and loss, which was positive for water and sewer. Important to make sure the rates are covering the activity. So overall, a healthy change in that position of 24,000,000 for the Water and Sewer Fund. Beyond that, those are kind of the prepared slides, but I'd be glad to answer any questions. And again, really appreciate all the cooperation we received from the county and clerk's office. So thank you.

Thank you for the work that you do and the concise presentation. Commissioners, are there any questions?

I do have. Do have a series of questions. One of them I'll forego. You've already answered the $28,000,000 question. I think we all lived through that last year.

I know to the extent you didn't go down to every line item through this, but did you, during your course or review as the auditor, find any waste of any sorts that you have a concern with?

Well, yeah, the focus of our audit is is not on fraud waste, but if it comes to our attention, we would point it out. But no, that was not nothing that we came across that was significant in that manner.

And your full review, it appears we're adhering to accepted government accounting practices as we should be?

That's correct. Yeah, and I did fail to mention there was a new accounting pronouncement that was implemented by the county this year. It was a pretty significant lift related to compensated absences, but at the end of the day, the calculation was basically a net zero impact on the financials, and no restatement was required.

Great. Thank you. That's all I have, madam chair.

Thank you. Any other further discussion, commissioners? Hearing none, thank you for your report. Thank you, Jenny, for the work you do. We appreciate you as well.

Thank you.

We'll move on to item number four, county investment adviser report. Mister McIntyre?

We need to take action on that, don't we?

It's a presentation.

My packet says request board approval.

I

don't see that either.

Oh, there's my copy.

You're talking about in the presentation?

Present. Yes.

It's in the back of the for the record, it is in back of the CPA's presentation, not the county presentation. How about in an abundance of caution, we take a vote on it?

No? It absolutely can't hurt to take a vote on it.

So moved. Approval. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Hearing none opposed, it passes unanimously. County Investment Advisor Report. Mr. McIntyre, you're up.

Thank you. And I will I will keep it concise. I know that you've got time constraints today, you just had another numbers presentation. And I'm gonna focus for the events and mention that what's going on in The Middle East right now is coloring everything. So really, it's taken everything from the economic growth to the employment to inflation and colored it, and we're not really sure where things are going at this point in time.

There's a lot of uncertainty. And and what that's gonna do is it's gonna keep the Fed on hold for the foreseeable future, which is something that we would have anticipated when the year started. The Fed meets this week, they will not move. We don't expect the Fed is gonna move until at the earliest September at this point, which affords us the luxury of allowing for liquidity at no additional cost, and that's kind of what we're gonna be focusing on going forward here. This is the the bar graph basically is non farm payrolls.

You can see it's been very, very uneven. If you look back in the last eighty years, you've never had five months of within the last nine of negative payroll growth that hasn't resulted in recession, but nobody really expects that we are going to see recession within the next year, which is kind of unusual. And if anything else, it indicates the idea that this is an unusual time, that you really can't rely on history going forward. In terms of jobs, as as businessmen, I think you understand that the easiest person to to let go is the one that you haven't hired yet. So businesses are being extremely cautious right now, which they should be.

And I think that the the county is gonna be doing the same thing going forward. This is this is inflation. This is the reason that the Fed would not be cutting rates. Growth seems to be slowing. Job growth seems to be somewhat anemic for now. That's no indication of what's gonna happen in the future, but one of the reasons the Fed is not gonna move, the primary reason, is that as of March, there was a great big increase in energy related inflation. It hasn't bled through to the core yet, but all eyes are on that. And, course, the longer this goes on, the more that is a possibility. So we'll keep an eye on it. The Fed's keeping an eye on it.

Economists are all keeping an eye on it. That mostly keeps us in a holding pattern. Been a lot of movement in terms of the market. This is the two year going back twelve months. I show it to you guys regularly. And again, this is the market not really understanding. So there's a lot of volatility. The one of the things to focus on here is so the six month yield right now in the six month treasury bill is about $3.68, $3.69. The one year is about $3.65. Kinda keep that in mind.

Those are the investment options. Overnights, because the Fed is on hold, have pretty much stayed true. The Florida Prime, which is managed by Federated, where the majority of your liquid money is, is earning above $3.80 right now, close to $3.85. So, you know, the question is, do you take what little additional liquidity you may have and step it out on the curve in an uncertain environment, or do you allow that to stay in in the state pool for the time being? Which, given the spending patterns and the maturity patterns, that's gonna make sense.

So this is even though I'm not gonna recommend that you're buying securities, the the fact that I'm recommending that you add additional liquidity is an investment decision that's based on where the market is and where expectations are. There are a tremendous amount tremendous is probably a word I shouldn't necessarily use, but from June through September, you've got about a quarter of the investment portfolio maturing. There were not a whole lot of maturities coming into that. There's not a tremendous amount of maturities coming in May. So there will be investment choices that have to be made this summer.

And then I finally want to show you again, the one year is trading at about $3.65 right now. The portfolio at the March was just about 4%. Portfolio at the April is going to be right about 4%. And frankly, if we were to buy securities out the curve, it might be a little bit lower than that. I think we can ride until those big maturities come.

And the portfolio is doing well relative to its benchmarks, and we're going to accumulate some liquidity. Just kind of to let you know, at the March, 12% of the portfolio was liquid. I I would I think the clerk's office is in agreement. I've worked closely with them on their cash flow needs, and and we feel like 12% is probably, frankly, a little bit low. So by the time we get to April, it will be a bit higher than that, and then we'll make decisions this summer. So although I would love to present some robust portfolio decisions for you to consider, at this point, we're going to hold steady. And I do need a motion on that. And if somebody will help me with

that Thank you, Mr. McIntyre. Yes, Commissioner Delari.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Scott. Motion to approve and implement the recommendations of our financial advisor based on the report submitted today and recommend the clerk implement the board's recommendation. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, it passes unanimously. Thank you for the work you do for us.

Thank you all very much. Thank you.

All right. Well, now we are going to move on to the consent agenda.

Madam Chair,

are you

prepared to make a

motion? Yeah,

I wasn't prepared for the motion either. So we do have a public comment. There's a speaker form that's been submitted. It's for a later item. But if you would, county attorney, give us the directions for public participation.

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

Public comments on quasi judicial or other public hearing items will occur during the board's consider consideration of those items. Public comments on pending procurement matters or on non agenda items shall not be permitted at this time. Members of the public desiring to make public comment must fill out a speaker form and present the form to staff. Forms are available in the lobby. Madam Chair. Thank you very much. Ms. Stregor, do you

have any public comment for the consent agenda? No, ma'am. All right. Hearing none, we previously pulled items six and ten. And commissioner Zembauer, you are ready to make a motion.

Yes. I will move approval of constitutional officers item number five, county manager's consent seven, eight, nine, and eleven.

We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Seeing no hands, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, it passes unanimously. Thank you very much. That takes us to regular agenda item number 12. And for this item, this is not an item that we're going to vote on. This is informational only. It is a program update. It will be presented by our Rick our Parks and Recreation Director. Welcome to the podium, Mr. Derr. Thank you. Good morning, commissioners.

Again, for the record, Rick Derr, Parks and Recreation Department Director. Six months ago, we were before you to talk about the rankings that we had of the many applications that the application review committee had reviewed, and we're now back to give you an update on where all of those applications stand. So again, back on November 18, we were able to show you exactly where we were going with all of these particular properties, and we gave you a ranking that had been done by our ARC committee and their particular work. The properties that will be highlighted are the top five that were on that list presented to you back in November. Those were ones that were recommended for moving forward with some degree purchase or at least evaluation for purchase, and we'll talk about that as we get into this, plus two others that were below the line but presented some unique opportunities at that particular time for further evaluation, and we'll discuss those as well.

So again, these were the top five: High Oaks, Lee Ranch, Buchholz, and I'm sure I'm not saying that correctly, D'Arcos and Lessard, and we'll get into those in detail in just a moment. The other two, which were sort of below that line, were the Parker property and the Lawler property, both of which we were directed at that particular time to at least address and then look at other funding sources to do that. At this particular point, we're including that with this update as a follow-up in the future. Those will be coming in separately as they are not part of Seminole Forever program. So let's start with the top two that were on the list.

Both of those back in November were slated for Florida Forever applications. So, High Oaks Ranch had just been submitted. It has been received by the state. There have been a series of presentations, both virtual as well as one in Lakeland back in February. Staff, our ARC, and a number of folks throughout the county also participated and were able to share their support for the measure.

There has been a ranking done by the Florida Forever Arc that was done on April 10, and at this particular point, High Oaks Ranch was added to the 2027 Florida Forever priority list. That would mean essentially it would be eligible for acquisitions starting in the new fiscal year, which for the state starts in July 2027. There'll be another final ranking and final vote to occur late this year, but good news there, it has made the list and was approved by the Florida Forever Arc, and we'll continue to track that as it proceeds forward. Lee Ranch was number two on the list. At that particular time, a direction was given to go ahead and work with the landowner to put together a Florida Forever application.

We beat the application date by over a month, got it in before the submittal deadline, and the day after the submittal deadline, county staff was informed by Florida Forever program staff that this particular property had been evaluated at another application in our distant past. I want to go back to prior to 2010 is what we were told. At that particular time, staff recommended that they actually move forward directly to the state real estate office and forwarded that and said there'd be no reason to go through the process all over again. They already had done their due diligence from the state side and went directly to the state real estate office. Last week, our staff, contacted state real estate and offered again if they would like us to go ahead and have appraisals run based on the stat based on the state's requirements, such as what we did for the Florida Forever application for Yarborough, we'd be happy to do so.

State Real Estate said we appreciate it. At the moment, we're on pause, and it's just a question of when they have a budget approved by the legislature. So at this particular moment, it is in state real estate office and when they're ready to go, they'll be letting us know and then we'll update you as that proceeds forward. So those were the top two items on the list, both of which were Florida forever applications. Now we'll get into the other three that were listed under Seminole forever application.

The first one here is DeArcos, just to refresh everyone's memory, that's about just over 200 acres on the shores of Lake Monroe. At that particular time, we had a asking price of about a half $1,000,000 or roughly $2,451 an acre. They've that particular asking price has been confirmed. Subsequent to that, our real estate office has run some comps and said that this is well within our a good deal, if you will, to put it in layman's terms. And during that time, we were also coordinating with the St.

Johns River Water Management District on their property and property management, as well as potential areas for them to acquire that they had priorities on. When we were able to brief them on this, they made a very generous offer that should the county pursue this and acquire the D'Arcos property, they would be very happy to manage it for us going forward in perpetuity. It's directly across the channel for across from Lake Monroe from properties that they already maintain and they see a lot of similarities in how they can continue to maintain that. They just ask that if we were to take them up on that offer, that there's a 20 acre piece that they own that's directly next to the Black Bear Wilderness Area, which we manage, that they would be happy to exchange, if you will, management responsibilities for each of the properties. So that was a very, very generous offer on on behalf of St.

John's. They've have since followed up with a written correspondence to that effect to the county manager's office, and we received that at the end of last week for further evaluation. So at this particular point, after having gone through some due diligence, we'd love to be able to put together an acquisition agreement and bring that to you in the future. So that is one particular item that we'll be moving forward and bringing to you at a future date. This is just a graphic to show you the locations of these different parcels.

The Arkos is the large one in red. Across the channel, you see in blue, that's an area that's currently maintained by the St. John's River Water Management District that's in Volusia County, and then it's also located in blue next to Black Bear Wilderness Area on the left part of the screen, that 20 acres. Item number four on the list for Seminole Forever was the Lazard property. Again, that's about 85 acres directly adjacent to Mullet Lake Park.

The property owner has come down in their asking price. At this particular time, after we've gone through some review within our county real estate office, they would like to be able to go ahead and have an appraisal done at this particular time. We're willing to move that forward and then the owner continues to state that they are willing to negotiate as we proceed into the future. So at this particular point, just as an update, we'll be happy to go ahead and run an appraisal on the property. And should we come back with some recommendations that we'll be bringing that to you on a future agenda as well.

The next item is, again, I'm sure I'm not pronouncing this correctly, the Buchholz property. It did receive favorable rankings, again, by the Seminole Forever Arc. It's 32 acres right off of County Road 419 and Snow Hill Road, or if you go by Landmarks, it's right across from the public shopping plaza that's right there on County Road 419. One of the questions that came up, however, during our presentation last November was, quite honestly, what could we do with the property? Could you show us what could be done there and why we would be interested in entertaining this for acquisition?

So during that time, since November, we've gone ahead and worked with our consultants, GAI, to take a look at what possibly could be done on that property. Again, our ARC committee had done a wonderful job at documenting all of the uniqueness about that property. We wanted to take a look and take the next step and say, all right, how would this fit within our offerings that we have, both within our natural lands program as well as our parks and recreation program, and what could be used for the property going forward? So this is just a zoomed in map, if you will, of the Southeast corner of the county. Chiliot is almost right dead right in the center of the of the property excuse me, of the map.

And then you see in the dash line, that is the rural charter boundary. So this particular property is located pretty much right on the doorstep of the rural area as defined in that part of the county. A couple of the properties to note that are around that location, probably the largest one is the Flagler Trail. It runs north south right through the middle of the screen. We're about two blocks to the west of that.

The other thing that will show up on another map that will show is it's very close proximity to Walker Elementary School, where we just the public works department had put in a signalized pedestrian crossing. So we're starting to see a lot more activity in that particular area in terms of walking and trails use. Probably more importantly, however, it is really close to where we've got along the Flagler Trail where we've designated that as a potential lake to lake regional trail. So it's really close proximity to that, again, right on the doorstep of the rural boundary. So heading forward, taking a look at the overall property, there's a few existing trails that have already been cut on the property.

Again, this is a zoomed in shot of the 30 plus acres, a fraction of which is on the east part of and split by Snow Hill Road, the remainder of the property being off to the west. One of the things that makes this property pretty remarkable, however, is, and we saw this within the ARCS evaluation and report, is our staff went out on-site with our folks from GAI, and took a look. And we've got an interesting, really interesting site going on there where there are literally eight different ecological communities that have been identified on the 30 acres alone. Everything from on the left hand of the screen is Zurich Oak going into Depression Marsh, It's not a state of mind, it's the Depression Marsh, if you will, to Bay Swamp down to Pinelands and Pine Regeneration. So, eight different unique ecological communities on this one property alone really shows a really interesting opportunity that we have in this location.

They talk about landmarks in the area. If you peek right in the upper middle of the screen, that's that lookout tower. It is not on this property. It's on adjacent property next to us owned by the state, but that's one of their old lookout towers that were on there and it is visible. This is from the Buchholz property and being able to establish and see it there.

If anyone drives up and down 419, if the Publix isn't the queue, then this one probably is for where the property is positioned. So again, being out on-site and taking a look at the various ecological communities, just some wonderful examples of the uniqueness of this property in its particular location. There is this is the house that is on-site. We've taken a look at what that looks like. It could use a little bit of TLC, but it's not too different from what program into some of our natural lands areas with a caretaker's residence.

There's an opportunity there if that's the direction we would like to go for further evaluation. So, what could we possibly do with those eight distinct ecological communities out on the site and the various trails that are there? And the concept that was put together essentially said, this would be a fantastic example of a place where kids and kids of all ages could explore, learn, and play on these 30 acres. Really interesting idea that says we're at the gateway of the rural the rural area, and at that particular location, you could possibly drive to this location, park, and really experience all of the things that are really fascinating and interesting and makes the rural area special on this one particular site alone without having to go miles into the wilderness, if you will, whether you're on state property or county property. So let's talk about what some of those things might look like.

So the idea of being able to explore, again, being able to open up some of the natural trails that are on there, there may be opportunities for shell paths and boardwalks. Either way, we could make those all ADA compliant. Learning, the opportunity to learn. Again, it's close proximity to Walker Elementary School, the potential for maybe some outdoor learning classrooms, if you will, some exhibits, the types of things that we do out on our natural lands program, as well as the possibility of even putting together wildlife or bird viewing blinds. That's sort of on the upper second column there from the left, one example of what a bird blind might look like.

Then all the way on the right side of the screen, the idea of blending the idea of play and natural areas together could provide a really unique experience in this particular area, whether you're on a mountain bike or you're at a playground that could be potential nature themed with natural types of experiences for the kids. So, being able to blend passive recreation in a wonderfully natural area at this particular location in the county could be a real interesting opportunity for us to develop. On the eastern part, so this is just East of Snow Hill Road, that area has already seen a lot of impacts for mountain bike use. If remember out at the Markham Woods Trailhead about a year and a half ago, we did a grand opening of the county's first what's called a pump track. That's basically a demonstration area for folks to be able to use their mountain bikes going through the various terrains that they'll encounter on various properties.

This could be another opportunity to develop maybe our second pump track at this point in the East part of the county, whereas Markham is all the way on the West part of the county. So that's the kind of features that you could possibly find there in that particular location. This would not be anything I could experience going that horizontal. I'm sure I would be eating dirt at that particular point, but other folks would really enjoy the experience, I'm sure. So, to take a look at the property, and this is something that, again, when I saw this photograph, this is a depression marsh that's right in the center of the property.

Those two little figures there, those are full grown adults that are walking through that particular area. I had to make sure that I understand the scale of what I'm looking at. The ability to bring folks out at this particular location right on the edge of the rural boundary and experienced wildlife. All of these species have been found on-site. As a matter of fact, our designers from GAI were out on property and of course, just when they went to take a picture of the white tailed deer, the deer took off.

So we had to at least show one represented there on property. So there is a variety of wildlife on property. So again, taking something that looks like this today on that 30 acres and maybe turning it into something with some bird blinds and some wildlife blinds and some ecological types of exhibitry could really open up that experience for all the eastern part of the county without having to go way into the wilderness and really experience all the special things about Seminole County. So those are some of the ideas that we've had for the Buchholz property. Again, we're not looking for a decision on this right now, it's just more of a here's what we could do there.

If you think that it's something that you'd like us to pursue in greater detail, we can continue on with the acquisition due diligence and at least be able to nail some of those details down. And then at that time, we'd also be working on what could be the capital budget for potential improvements of the property and what some of those options may be and bring that to you in the future for further consideration. So those were the top five on the Seminole Forever list. The other two, as I'd said, the Parker property and the Lawler property, those fell below the recommended line. Both of these are currently within our real estate division.

Parker property, they're continuing to do due diligence on. This was something that we looked at that could be an asset for public works for the long term maintenance of the Lockhart Canal. And then the Lawler property is a part of and came to us originally as for the Orange Avenue expansion project, and the need for additional right of way along that front edge, and staff continues to be in negotiation, for that entire piece moving that forward as well. Both of these would come back to you at a future date for any types of approvals that would be required, but it's at this particular time I'm sort of saying, Sayonara to both of those properties in terms of Seminole Forever, as you'd stated. We're not looking to spend any Seminole Forever dollars on these, and we've established at least some potential funding sources for each one of these outside of the Seminole Forever program.

So to summarize this particular point, High Oaks and Lee Ranch will continue to work with the state via the Florida Forever program. If there's any action required by the board, we'll be bringing those back to you in the future for future consideration. The Argos is one that we feel really comfortable with and being able to put together a potential acquisition contract at this particular point and then continuing to negotiate along with the water management district for the future management of the property as well, and again bring those back to you for a future decision and action by the board. Lessard, we'd like to move forward with an appraisal and again be able to negotiate and bring that forward to you at a future date. Then And again, with Buchholz, if this is something you'd like us to continue forward on, we'd be happy to continue to both negotiate on behalf of the current landowner, as well as establishing a potential capital budget and bring those back to you for future consideration as well.

So that is the extent of my summary report at the six month mark, and I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you, Rick. So I'll kick off the conversation by saying I agree with all of the recommendations and I would just pursue it. I do want to get on the record that the blinds that are proposed for the Buchholz property are simply blinds to observe from and not to do anything else from, seeing this precious deer out there. Let's just establish that right now. Commissioners, any comments?

Go ahead. I

just wanna say thank you so much for the work that went into this and and the staff for having the vision, especially on that Buchholz property. As soon as you started going through that with me, I was getting all excited and having visions of a little, I don't know, my school board self came back and I got all excited. So I'm thrilled. And could you imagine being able to like go to Publix and then

Walk across

the street.

Yeah. I mean,

how awesome. I just that's the kind of project that I think we envisioned with this program. Thank you, Commissioner Constantine, for your vision and, dragging a couple of us over the line on it because truly these funds are from our general fund. While they are non ad valorem dollars, they are funds from our general fund that could be spent on anything any of the other number of hundreds of needs in this county. And the commitment of this board and the dedication and the support of this community to pursue projects like this, I think, is what one of the things that makes our county so special. And thank you, staff, for bringing this forward. Commissioner Zandbauer.

Thank you. I'll echo Commissioner Lockhart's sentiment. Good work, great presentation. I think we are hitting the marks as we move forward with our ARC committee as well as staff, and we'd be remiss not to thank those folks on the ARC committee for the time they take away from their families and jobs and so forth to help us here understand the vision and what these properties may or may not be able to do. The one a couple things as we move forward on the Buckholes property, I'd like to see exactly as you stated, a capital improvement cost for that parcel.

And then some of the species that have been found on that property, do any of those, do we know or have we even checked preempt any development on that property as it currently stands with the entitlements in place? Would be something I would be curious to have an understanding. I think at this point, my understanding is it can be developed Yes. At one unit per five acres and based on the wetlands. I like the idea of the trail connection going through there.

I will, however, say as a fan of wildlife, I don't know how long wildlife would stay on that property once you bring the humans into it because literally, you have massive development to the east of that that was there before the rural boundary was in place. Immediately to the west, you have the city of Oviedo, which has heavy development coming pretty much slap up against it. And then three or four years ago, we approved a project right on one of the edges of this property, which is a high density improved development for attainable housing. So those are all things that although I like the vision, I'm not so sure, and add the the shooting range, it's right down the street with the gunshots going off all the time. I don't know how long some of this wildlife would stay there once you introduce the human element of of people coming and going.

So but I would like to see, you know, that cost to improve that property as we move forward. Very good. Thank you.

Commissioner Constantine?

Thank you very much. And, Madam Chair, I appreciate your comments related to commissioner Zimbauer because I saw his eyes light up when when they talked about white tailed deer. So They're too small. They're like little dogs in Florida.

You gotta go out west or up north.

Then I I'm thankful that we won't be down in the Keys and looking

But, at those

you know, I I do want to comment on what commissioner Zinbauer said. You know, this is a vision. It's a great parks and recs guy vision, and I I respect that. But, you know, maybe but this is not saying that that is to the extent. We can make it much smaller imprint and footprint, if we will, to make sure that we maintain that wildlife because, yeah, we don't wanna be the cause of them having to move out.

And they have such little habitat in that area now because we continue to encroach as commissioner Zimbauer said, we have to be very careful of that. But, yes, as commissioner Lockhart indicated, you know, this this this is a vision for all of us. It makes what it's partly what makes Seminole County so special. And I will just tell you that last week, I was in Volusia County talking about home rule, but conservation came up in the discussion. And I will tell you that all of them are many areas, and this was a five county wide leg of women voters, are jealous of the way that we have put this together because we have the infrastructure designed to ensure that we get the best bang for the buck.

We didn't just put something on the ballot and say we're gonna get money without any of the real meat to how we then, you know, implement this program. And many others just have money sitting in a bank without any direction as to how to buy things into the fact that I saw that one county was thinking about buying sand to put on beach. Okay? It their conservation

be needed in that county.

But you understand that's not conservation per se. And as all of us have said, not only do we thank the staff for doing a great job, but the ARC, I think, is the unique perspective of this. They, with all of the with the appointments that all of you made, and they were great appointments, really have a perspective of what is important from an environmental and a conservation standpoint to protect our natural resources, and they've done a phenomenal job. So, as Commissioner Her said, I support all the recommendations and moving forward, and I I look forward to the next proposal and purchase because that's one thing I'm really excited about, something on, you know, you know, in our portfolio. And just as a reminder, at the Wekaiba Commission meeting, DOT still has some valuable property that they no longer need for the Wekaiba Parkway that I think we should put in the first right of refusal because it's on the Wekiva and some other areas or near the Wekiva.

And, you know, obviously, if they push it to be surplus, we can get it at the very good price of zero. So

Thank you, commissioner Constantine, for your suggestion. Commissioner Delari?

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'll make this quick. I'm not going to repeat what the other commissioners said because they're all spot on. But I would repeat, thank you. And please thank the Art Committee as well as anyone associated with this project. I know a lot of time and hours goes into this. I fully support all the projects and all the pieces of property you're looking at. I would like to see more information about not just what would happen to property, but how we maintain it. And if there's a capital improvement, how do we maintain that improvement. I would like to see if there are some areas around these cities, if the cities are willing to participate because a lot of their residents, they are all our residents, they may want to participate as well.

So we should reach out to any city that's close to any proximity to these locations. I love the idea about working with St. John's. They've always been great partners. They approve it one more time, and I think the idea that you told us about by them maintaining one piece and we maintaining one of theirs is a great idea. It's how we get best bang for the buck and how we do what's right for the environment and for the citizens. I would also like to echo developing some of these pieces of property, we're actually going to be changing it. I'd be hesitant in doing that without more information.

Absolutely.

Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you. Mister Dyer, do you have everything you need?

Yes. We do. Thank you very much.

Alright. I'm sorry. Yes.

That's okay. I do have a question about the ordinance. So and maybe this is just the wording, and I'll ask the attorney to to maybe get back to us on this question. But in section one ninety point two one three of the ordinance that we adopted, there's management and property improvement plan that's described. But it's interesting because the way it's worded is a management plan must be completed not only pre acquisition, but also post acquisition and must include and of course, all of the things that we've talked about with capital improvements and costs for maintenance and what have you.

I'm curious what the timeline is and how far in advance that pre acquisition plan has to be presented and marinated in before we decide what we're going to do. And then that post acquisition plan, I'm just I'm looking at the timeline and I'm like, how far pre and how far post? I just want to get a feel for what the what we're supposed to be looking for with that. And I don't expect you to have an answer now that may be a go back and chat about it kind of thing, but it struck me.

Very good. And we'll do that. Thank you.

Thank you. I do believe we have a public comment on this item. Am I correct? Female Only written comment, Chairman. Only written comment. I thought we did have a public comment. All right. Well, I think that concludes that presentation. You have everything you need. You have some follow-up items for us, and we appreciate you. Female Thank you. Female Thank you. We will move on to item thirteen, third generation 1¢ infrastructure sales tax update and American Public Works Association accreditation presentation. And we have Tanya Aronson, Public Works Director.

Taney Good morning, Madam Chair, members of this commission. It's truly my honor to be here today to talk about our accomplishments with the third gen, as well as our overall public works accomplishments, as well as talk about our APWA accreditation. Before I begin, I just want to thank you all for your comments with the staff earlier. I think that all of your comments were so spot on, and I just feel like a proud mother hen up here, sort of tooting the horn of public works staff, because I just have the honor of giving this presentation, but we have a lot of our public works staff out here who really does the work every day. So with that, I just want to take you back to October when John Slott and I were here.

That was my first presentation to this commission, and we were giving you an update on the third gen. At that time in October, we had 60 remaining projects. Public Works had completed 13 in the previous fiscal year. And what we told you is we are going to continue, as we moved into the new fiscal year, we are going to continue with our capital maintenance program, with our resurfacing, our sidewalks, our bridge repair. We were also going to look to right size our work program and actively pursue other funding to leverage the dollars that Seminole County has for public works projects.

So six or so months later, we are down to 45 projects. We have recently completed five projects and have seven more in the stages of completion. So a lot of those construction projects are getting completed, as well as our basing studies, which Joe LaFossa was here earlier this year presenting to you. In terms of where we were in October October and and what what we we have have accomplished, accomplished, I'm I'm just just going to walk through a lot of those accomplishments for you. Since October, we started our 2050 mobility and transportation plan, and we look to present to you in June our draft priority projects.

We also started our mobility fee study. We've completed two stakeholder meetings, and we'll come back to this commission to talk about our findings in the fall of this year. Our stormwater master plan, as you are aware, we presented about three or four basin studies earlier this year, and we've been working on our stormwater master plan, which is almost complete. And we'll be back in June to present that to you. In terms of our design plan projects, I am happy to tell you that we have been awarded $3,400,000 from the FDOT for our North Street quarter improvements phase two.

Those are improvements along Raymond Street, which again is leveraging Seminole County dollars. So that is in DOT's work program in FY 'thirty. We also began the last widening of 419, 426. We are working on our 30% plans now. For our Milton, NRCS Milton project, which includes the Lockhart Smith Canal, this is about a $10,000,000 grant that we are awarded.

Yesterday, we were told that we are to proceed into construction. Nice. So that's another construction project that we'll be moving forward. The staff has worked really hard to get the design complete on that. Our Orange Boulevard project, we have completed all the design. We are finishing up the right of way, and we have submitted a build grant. So we should find that out in June if we were awarded that. As you know, you all approved the interlocal agreement with DOT. That took a lot of effort from our staff to stay on DOT, get that in place, and I want to thank Arturo Perez for that. He continually followed up with DOT.

I'm happy to report it was advertised, and it should be awarded in bay. So that construction will start as well. And then for our Old Lake Mary Road sidewalks, we completed the design. We talked about this project in October. We did make it into the finalists for Metro Plan, and we're looking to see if we get funding for that. So again, leveraging those dollars. In terms of construction, we have a U. S. 1792 pedestrian overpass. We are in jeopardy of losing about a million dollars from DOT.

I'm proud to say that we have updated the design and it is out for construction and DOT is extremely happy with us. So that is another project that we have advertised in the last six months. Our Hillview drainage study, that was sort of dormant for about a year. We are doing some right of way. That is under construction now in this past six months, and I'm happy to say through Marie Lackey, the extra money that we needed for right of way in construction was awarded to us from the federal government, again, leveraging dollars.

We are a support cast to Rick Derv on the Rolling Hills. We attended the April 11 groundbreaking ceremony, and we also attended the precon. So we have assigned a project manager to help with that construction for the North Street improvements. The Wekiva Springs and Seville Point intersection, we're waiting for school to get out, and we'll erect those traffic lights, and we're about 50% complete with our Oxford drainage and sidewalks. I do also have three focal construction projects I want to give you an update on.

Our Midway Drainage Improvement Project, which was such a nice groundbreaking as well. 1A, 1B, and 2B are now very actively under construction. Actually, where that picture was taken, we're digging ponds out. So that construction is going well. We are finding a few pipes that have been abandoned that we are taking out of the ground, but I don't think that's a surprise No. With the construction out there. Ardillon Street, you would recognize this Commissioner Zemenbauer.

Yes. I hear about it daily.

I know you do.

We do too. So that project actually, since October, the design was finished. It was advertised for construction. You can see that construction is well underway for those improvements for the drainage. And finally, I know this project has been around for a long time, but the good news is it's under construction and we are 10% ahead of schedule on that.

Terms of resurfacing projects, so this is part of our third gen money as well. In the past six months, we have resurfaced 28 roads and 26 miles. That's a lot of resurfacing, and I know that our residents really love to see those new beautiful black asphalt. In terms of traffic engineering, you know, this is under Charlie Wetzel. You know, your traffic engineering, and I think you are all aware, is probably the best in the region.

I would say not probably, it is. A lot of counties and cities look to this county as what to do, and so Charlie is really a leader in the region, and I really am thankful to be able to work with him. They have completed a signal cabinet upgrade. They're also in the middle of we've got about 66 old signals that we need to upgrade, so they're in the process of upgrading those. There's a little bullet here, and I want to talk about it a little bit more.

It's called One Network Platform, because this is really going to be impactful to our residents and the people traveling through our county. This was a partners project with our IT group and our communications, And what this software does is we can put in the software where we have road closures, or we have issues associated with utility work, And that pushes it out to Waze, to Apple Maps, to Google Maps, and things. And so that really, really helps with moving people around our county. We are now working with IT and the communications to integrate that into our website. So I really think that's a really good positive, using a lot of this technology for the good, because it's not just putting lanes, putting turn lanes, it's really utilizing everything at our resources at our disposal.

Our roads and stormwater and engineering folks, also Marie Lackey, she's our new division head, and I tell you what, she had big shoes to fill, but she's filled them already, and she's done made such a big impact out there. But these guys in six months had 1,200 work orders that were open. They've closed 1,000. That is so much. I mean, citizens I'm always seeing emails from our citizens thanking our road crews out there, because they do such a great job, as well as working on our sidewalks, replacing ADA ramps, doing our pipelining.

So these folks really work so hard day in, day out to make is in good order. Another initiative that we've spoken to you about this was started before me, but we were able to push it out just recently in the last couple weeks is our dashboard. So the difference between the 50 and the 45 is that the 50 includes those projects we just completed. Those are those five projects. And this is such a good tool to our residents and our citizens as well because for every project we're working on, it gives the name of the project manager, where it is in the project development process, what the budget is for the project.

And so this has really been a partner's project with IT and communications as well. And I know, Chairman, how you love dashboards. Finally, this is our sort of drop the mic slide. So this was started before me with John Slott, who was doing the accreditation for the American Public Works Association. In March, we were awarded the accreditation.

And this is really hard to get. We're only one of 10 counties in the state to get this accreditation. We would not have been able to do this without our other departments human resources, risk management, office of communications, emergency management, real estate, and development services. And we also had two people within our group that really, really made this possible, and that's Arturo Perez and Brea Brown. I really want to give them a very special thank you. They're in the audience today. I also am proud to say that the regional director of APWA is here, Mr. Larry Ingram from Birmingham, Alabama. And he likes those white deer Yeah. Things,

He'll have to come visit me in Lower Alabama.

Yeah, he's got things on his wall that you would probably like. But he is so busy. I'm so impressed with him. APWA is just like a volunteer organization for him. He is into Boy Scouts. He does APWA. He works full time, and his son is in soccer. So with that, I'd love to invite him up to say a few words and provide the public works with the accreditation.

Absolutely, and after that, I think this is a picture opportunity.

Yes.

Let me give me just a second here.

Let me start by saying thank you for being here.

Oh, absolutely. Thank you all for having me. I'm fighting this thing. I had to fight a printer before I left and couldn't get the paper copy to print, so my poor vision is trying to read it off my phone.

You could make it up if you wanted to. We're Well,

I'm probably going to clean most of it. But, no, my name is Larry Ingram. I serve as the region four director for the American Public Works Association. In that role, that puts me on the national board of directors. I oversee the chapters in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas.

And this is actually one of the best parts of the job is I get to come do accreditation presentations. So we've just gotten a great presentation on what this department does, But for anybody not familiar with public works, I always get asked the question, what is public works? And I say, we do all the things and take care of the things you take for granted. If we're doing our jobs right, you don't think about us. It's when our stuff is screwed up that you think about us.

It's when the water doesn't flow and the sewers are overflowing or the roads are blocked. That's when you think about us, not when you go to work and you never slow down. But this department does a great job with roughly a 180 plus folks to maintain everything that they maintain through the engineering department, roads and storm water, and the traffic department. And most importantly, the thing most people forget about is public works employees are first responders. After hurricanes, natural disasters, Public Works tends to be the first one in because somebody's here to get the roads open for everybody else to get there, and they're the last ones out because they've got to put everything back together when it's all said and done.

It's so kind of a little little story for me is I took over a public works department back in 2011, and three weeks in, our sister city across the river from us was hit with an f five tornado. And so that was a trial by fire for me, and it was it opened my eyes into the the first responder aspects of public works. And so I can't say enough about what departments do with regards to that. And being located down here in Florida, hurricanes are real prevalent. We had I lived in The Panhandle for quite a few years, and we had a lot of them when I was there.

But accreditation is I I can't say enough about the achievement. Departments typically don't write things down. They just do things the way they've always done them because that's what they've

always

done. Accreditation forces you to evaluate that and actually write it down. And so it recognizes the policies, procedures, practices that your department utilizes and the fact that they are in line with international norms. And if I remember correctly, it evaluates two zero five total practices, some of which don't apply to every department. Don't imagine there's a very thick section on snow management in Seminole County's Pub Wards Manual.

But the process is very labor intensive, and the staff has done a great job because it starts with a self evaluation of all the existing policies and procedures and how they stack up against those standard practices. And then you revise, you refine, you work within your staff, within your county, and you create those practices to where they meet those norms. And then all of that gets evaluated by a group of third party reviewers from APWA. And they come down, they meet with staff, they go through everything, they may find a small tweak here or there, they may say, hey, go back and punt, redo this process. And so as they go through that process, they get evaluated.

And this department was found to be 100% in compliance with all applicable practices related to what they do. As a matter of fact, two of the practices were deemed to be model practices to be used as examples by other departments across the public work spectrum. And to put that in perspective, APWA represents about

32,000

people, but we have chapters across The US and across Canada. So we're it's it's a broad organization. But those two practices specifically were the emergency management plan and the local mitigation and resiliency strategy. And again, accreditation is an achievement. And to kind of put that in perspective, across North America, there are roughly 23,000 municipalities and jurisdictions.

There's 228 accredited agencies. That puts Seminole County in the ninety ninth percentile of agencies in The US and Canada. Not to mention, I have 41 accredited agencies in the state of Florida, and and now Seminole County is one of those. And so, like I said, I can't say enough about what this department does. I can't thank the commission enough for supporting them in this because it is a time consuming endeavor, but it will do nothing but benefit the county and the citizens moving forward.

And so on behalf of the American Public Works Board of Directors, I would like to recognize the public works Seminole County Public Works Department for this outstanding achievement. Thank you and congratulations.

Commissioners, let's meet down on the floor for a picture. All right. Commissioners, we're going to keep this moving. Congratulations to Public Works and Tawny, the entire department, county manager's office, all of the support that it took to have that happen. I know it wasn't just the one department because doing an accreditation is a huge lift.

But congratulations, it's wonderful to be announced in the ninety ninth percentile of anything.

That's right.

With that, is there any public comment? No, ma'am. Alright. There is not. That moves us to

I'm assuming this is the end of the agenda.

It is not.

Oh, I'm sorry. I I just had something to say whenever y'all get done.

Okay. I'm sorry.

Madam chair? Yes.

I I just wanna recognize the presentation we just saw and thank

There you go.

All of our staff We got close. And tell you how thrilled I am after arriving here seven years ago and see how stuck in the mud we were about getting projects cranked out and how fast we're now getting them cranked out is fantastic. So good work. Thank you all very much.

Thank you. Is do you have a form from the gentleman who wishes to speak? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Alright. Good deal. County attorney's report.

I have no report today, madam chair. County manager's report.

I have no report today, Madam Chair. We have two board appointments. And before we start this, I want to say thank you to Commissioner Lockhart and Commissioner Zembauer for working through this not together. I don't mean to say that you worked through this together, but I know both of you individually put in work with the county manager's office. And I know a thank you is in order for Tricia with regard to getting the process fixed. We'll hear more about that in the future. But for now, I would like a nomination on item 14 for an appointment of one individual to the Metro Plan Orlando Community Advisory Board.

So moved. Second.

And the nomination is for Jose Morales. We have a first and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries unanimously. The next item is item number 15, discussion and consideration of the appointment of one individual to the Board of Adjustment. This is Catherine Clifford. Motion to approve Catherine

Clifford. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, passes unanimously. Thank you. So we're gonna move on to district reports. I wanna be mindful of the fact that we do already have the court reporter here. If we could keep these to the essential items only, that would be fabulous. So we'll start with commissioner Lockhart, and you'll kick off our pace.

Alright. Well, then I'm gonna go ahead and give miss O'Lorey a heads up that I'm going to ask her to chime in with me on the update for SunRail and Lynx, if that's okay. Give her a little the Lake Mary State of the City was is was just a fabulous event. It's hosted by the the Seminole County chamber and, obviously, the city of Lake Mary. But the creativity that was involved in putting that event on, they did a whole theme based on TV, and and it was LMTV, like MTV, but Lake Mary TV.

It was just priceless. I think Evoque advertising had a lot to do with putting together the the videos, and they just did a tremendous job of highlighting their staff and really talking about what municipal government is all about and serving citizens. And so shout out to them and for really an amazing event. It was a packed house. Their fire marshal, I think, was there, but kinda looking the other way because it was crazy packed.

The update that I wanna share with you about the LINX board meeting in particular, there were discussions about the removal of the shelters and how those were going to be funded. And in a briefing with Ms. Alori and me, miss Hawkins, who's the CEO of Lynx, said that they were going to be using their $53.00 7 funds to remove those structures. I think that's important for us to recognize. They are talking about redoing the calculation for the cost share.

They are are definitely going to be bringing back a conversation about, including the paratransit administrative overhead to be distributed among all of the counties for that calculation as well. And miss Alori, if you wanna provide any sort of context, additional context to that and what that means to Seminole County. It essentially it increases our overall cost to links as we had kind of predicted that that might be their intent. But there's just they're moving levers. So if you don't mind.

Yes. Oh, of course. So they presented a number of options on reallocating dollars associated with because Seminole County reduced their fixed guideway. Sort of the option they settled on is, as Commissioner Lockhart said, would be to add in the overhead for paratransit in as well as fixed guideway, which brings the Seminole County portion up to an additional $1,500,000 a year. However, the district secretary for DOT, John Tyler, was really adamant and insistent that that not be charged, that we looked into a tiered approach for that, that links lessing that impact.

There was also an increase to Osceola County, too. Really, the only decrease was for Orange County. Osceola County was about, think I it was like $687,000 close to $700,000 definitely more for Seminole. So what they were going to look at and bring back to the Finance and Audit Committee was utilizing FTA 5,307 funds, freezing positions and utilizing those dollars to help lessen impacts as well as some of the stabilization funds as well. And so those options were going to be looked at with staff and then brought back to the Finance and Audit Committee, I presume at their next meeting.

Thank you. And one of the things that I and I'm so glad you mentioned Secretary Tyler by name, because FDOT it's typically in in these meetings is doesn't take a real prominent role. Right? They're a team member, but they're they're typically not leading the charge on something. And it was very nice to have, another partner say, you know, there is an option with LINX's budget where we we could look at cost saving measures.

That is an option. It's not always more, more, more, more, more. And so in preparation for our budget discussions, and we know that the LINX team will be here in the coming months to present their budget, I wanted to make sure that you all are kept up to date on how how things are moving, which buckets they are moving from and to. And one of our funding partners said, well, but Seminole County just had their overall cost decrease, did they not? And she said, well, yes.

The answer is yes, because we needed to cut costs and eliminate underperforming routes. Well, if if it decreased, well, now it's just you know, it's going up just a small amount now. It like so it's sort of just the the mindset is very different than what our boards would be in looking at an overall budgeting process. So I just want you all to have all of the updates, and miss Alori has just been a wonderful addition to that oversight committee to to help represent Seminole County and truly to be a partner because I believe these are the same organizations that we're partnering with with SunRail as well. So it's the same organizations essentially.

We're all in the same bucket together. Want to we want to do most of us want to do things as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. So that's important. We are talking about and with the help of Naysa Boerkert, who is the new staff attorney she's not a she's the she's the deputy attorney serving as the staff member representing us on the links on the sunrail in place of Burjesh. And so there's a lot of, you know, handing over of information there.

The local funding agreement is you know, we're going back in time a little bit, getting everybody caught up. This process that we used last year for developing the budget, again, shout out to DOT. They did a phenomenal job of helping to may maintain that SunRail cost impact to the local governments at basically, you know, flat. And so now looking at the budgeting process for this coming year, making sure that we're implementing the same strategies or improving on those strategies even with some new players in the game. So anything that you'd like to add to that, Ms. Alori? I'd be happy to have you.

The only other thing that I would add is that the CFCRC attorney, which has been contracted through Seminole County, they presented at the meeting. They were asked to present an organizational going forward. So they presented that, but there was really no discussion within the board on that. But I think that will be something that we'll have discussions over the next year of as we move forward with the transition now that the locals are paying for it, but now really taking the operations over. So that's sort of on deck for us to all figure out through the next year. So we'll keep everybody updated on those discussions as well.

Yeah. Thank you so much. Of course. Alright.

That's all I have. Thank you. Commissioner DeLaury?

Thank you, madam chairman. Two quick items. First, Tani, can you stay there for a moment, please? It's big Last evening, myself, the county manager, Tani, and CSX, we presented to the city of Oviedo about the issue regarding the gas tax. And I believe their city of Oviedo is not gonna move forward. They don't really wanna continue the conversation. Is that did you take that you got on it, Tani?

Yes, sir.

They really

They asked a bunch of questions and they seem to have they seem to have enough information.

Mhmm.

And they did not instruct their city manager to move forward at this time.

Correct.

I also wanna compliment Tani because yesterday, after hours, Tani went to the city of Oviedo with us and it was her birthday.

Oh. Birthday.

What a birthday.

But see, I'm not like Darren. He loves his birthday. I try to forget my I understand that,

but I wanted to bring

that, Darren. Throwing the boss under the bus.

That's fantastic. Thank you, Tony.

You, Tony, for your dedication and your hard work. Absolutely.

Thank

you. Just And want to keep everybody up to date on what happened last night.

Commissioner Tory?

Yes, ma'am.

If I may. So I watched that live. It was a very interesting conversation, and I appreciated so much everybody being there. Michelle Mikash, of course, did a fantastic job to Erin as well. My sense is that there is some confusion? Well, I don't wanna use the word confusion

because say, how are you gonna couch

this one?

I know. I know. So I I agree with you. At the end of the day, there may have been the it was not my impression, having watched it

k.

Was that they weren't really sure what to do. They there was a miss

And that's and that's why I said at this time, they're not moving forward. That's what I said.

They're not wanting to put in put the item on their agenda. But I think there's still there were a couple of commission council members

Mhmm.

Who still had questions and wanted to better understand. And I I I think a couple of of opportunities maybe moving forward if if if I don't know. My thought process counts for anything. As we look at all of our seven cities that we want to partner with with this with these gas tax funds that, of course, we implemented on their behalf, granted they didn't ask for it, but this is a manna from heaven scenario for them. Are there other we, you know, we sent we a a letter went to these four cities saying, we think this is a great project for you.

You should want to partner with us. Rather than asking them, are there projects that the county is doing that you think would be impactful that you would want to partner with us? And so I'm wondering if allowing for a, as Christian Swenson would say, a Chinese menu of options might be a better way to engage our cities and invite them to participate in the things that they see most valuable as oppose because, clearly, Oviedo does not they the ability of bringing in that 417 connector to them with the idea of having a hotel, I would have been excited had I been one of those council members. They were like, woah. Woah. Woah. You're gonna bring in a hotel and traffic? Like, that's gonna bring traffic. I don't know that we want that. So it like, our mindset is, wow.

Economic growth. This is a fabulous thing. What I saw was that what they want for their city is is different perhaps. And so for us to project onto them what their priorities might be, maybe maybe that was a misstep. So I I would like to drop back and punt, if we could, in our in our opportunities of collaborating with our city partners.

I may have some comments on that when you're ready.

I'm going to weigh in here because the letter was referenced. So the letter was not sent as the first piece of communication. The letter was sent after conversations had taken place, CEO to CEO of the organization, so from our county manager to their city managers. Each of the city managers were briefed. All of their city council members were asked if they wanted briefings with CFX as well as our county management team.

Some of them took us up on that. The City of Sanford took us up on that. Some of them did not take us up on that. So there was collaboration that happened in advance of the letter. I just want to be clear that the letter was sent as a method to establish fact as these conversations all started happening because we were already starting to hear things that were not fact coming back, as it always happens when there's conversations. Right.

I guess I don't recall and this is my this could very well be my own moving into senioritis moment, not like senior year, but senior.

Hey, it doesn't get any better.

Yeah. That's what I'm hearing. I don't recall our board really having a public conversation and saying that we wanted to ask these four cities to participate in that particular project with those gas tax funds. I thought we were just I didn't think we had gotten that far in our board direction. So it caught me a little off guard when I got the letter in my inbox.

I was under the impression that each one of you were briefed and an agreement. So with that, I'll turn it over to commissioner Zinbauer.

So thank you, madam chair. So, yes, I was briefed. We talked about it during the retreat. Gave direction to the county manager, Steele County manager, to start the dialogue and conversations with the cities. As chair last year, when our action took place, we had the conversation with our counterparts in the other cities to ensure that they knew this was on the radar, that this discussion would start happening.

And we have collaborated. And I would say, and many of us know this already, as we serve on regional and state boards and so forth, Seminole County probably collaborates with its seven cities better than probably any county in this state, sometimes maybe to our own peril, but they are taxpayers of this county. But with the 1¢ sales tax, there was all kinds of collaboration with all the projects that would make sense that maybe the city would want, that the county could help with, or let the city do it instead of the county at their contracted rates and so forth. I think we've got a pretty good track record of collaboration, and I think it's more of maybe an ideology thought process of individual decision makers, just like every one of us. It find benefits in some things we can collaborate, and no benefit in others that we don't collaborate.

But I think we, and they as well, often soon forget historically what we've done for each other. You know, it's like the four nineteen widening project that was discussed phase three. This county purposely took $20,000,000 away from one of our projects to give to the city of Oviedo to cure that congestion issue over there on 419. That happened fifteen years ago. Mhmm. I wasn't here then. I only know about it because I was involved in that corridor, but many of those folks weren't here at that time to understand Some that give and take. Some or more. No. Understood.

I I realized you were sitting on the council Yeah. Some or more. Prior to that. But best I can tell, our staff's been pretty engaging. I can't speak down to the nth degree of how much engagement with each elected officials occurred, but

That's yeah. And I think so what I observed watching the interaction last night was that their city had theirs, and I'm not saying that it didn't happen. It because I was told that this the city manager is exactly what you said, that our our it was administrator to administrator. These conversations were happening. And then when when I saw the dynamic of the administrators with his city council last night, it was as though those conversations had never occurred.

It was it was fascinating to me. That's my gonna be my word of the day. Because if those brief if the if their city manager had briefed them in the way that I think all of that information would have been relayed, it would have been a much different conversation. Not necessarily that the outcome would have been different, because I do think there are some significant significant ideological, you know, differences, which is fine. We can all, you know, agree to disagree. But it caught me off guard at how disconnected all of that conversation seemed to be. And I don't know, other than commissioner DeLaury, don't know who else has actually, you know, seen it firsthand. You watched it also? Okay. I don't know if you had the same impression. It was just

Well, so so let me give my impression of it, and I'm then going to turn it back to you to get I back to your think different boards operate differently. Different organizations operate differently. And I think there's dynamics in every group of humans that work together. I think we just saw a dynamic. I think it will be different, and this was the first one.

I think it will be different in a different board. You'll see a different dynamic when we've taken the same steps everywhere. This is an unusual process and request. I also think each community looks at themselves very differently. I think what the inter the most interesting thing to me is that we have an airport that's ripe for economic development that's looking for job creating organizations to be there.

And it would certainly be of interest to me if I sat on that council to make sure that my citizens could get to their job as easy as they possibly could. Exactly. Because it it it goes to lifestyle, and these are gonna be high paying jobs based on the setup of the airport. So I I think there's a learning opportunity here as with anything. If anybody came in front of us and said, We want money that we just got for you, we would all react the same way, too. So to impose upon them an expectation that it should have been, Sure. I just think it's an iterative process. But then

if that's what we expected, if we expected them to rebuff, why did we approach it in that way if that was the expectation?

Madam chair, I've got one other thing to add.

Bob's had his hand up.

Bob goes.

I'm not sure Dilawri.

All I

was gonna say a couple things if I will. Thank you, madam chairman. First of all, I'm talking to the county manager. He did speak to all the city managers a number of times about this. And depending what city he spoke to, someone wanted wanted us to go to work session like we did last night. Same thing with the city of Sanford. There are some other cities like the city of Lake Mary. He just wants to he was he was told by their city manager just to put on an agenda and come to a real formal meeting. So each city is acting totally different.

Mhmm. Mhmm.

They have the right to do that. Mhmm. And I also believe that, you know, it's a learning process. You know, even though we did speak about, you know, why this connector is so important, economic development, transportation, there was a lot of different questions from different area areas. I'm sure you picked up on that in watching the meeting. I'm not gonna get into all of them. As I said, they didn't want to move forward at this time. They may change their mind. I think they will because I think there's some opportunities there that I plan on talking to the county manager about and you all, but I want to talk to the county manager first. Not that I'm trying to circumvent you all, but I just wanted to get his take on the meeting because after that, we went home.

And I think it'd be advantageous for us to regroup. And as the cities unfold, as we all are sitting here, there's gonna be a learning curve from our side as well as the city side. And so I think it's advantageous as we have done in the past. This county works very well with all of our seven cities as commissioner Zimbauer spoke about. And we have true partnerships at all levels. And I think this is just one little piece of the pie that we just have to go back and figure out how to educate people. And if they don't want to move forward, that's okay. But, you know, I don't think it's we need more work. We just have to keep on continuing. We need

some more work to do. Commissioner Zimbauer?

All I would say is just to clear a belief that is a stigmatism that has existed since this since this was all contemplated, which is this is a road to the airport. This is not a road to the airport. This is a road to relieve Lake Mary Boulevard congestion. As we all know, the development that's been approved along that corridor by us and the city of Sanford, it is a rapidly growing area that's going to be just gridlocked if this road doesn't get put in. Yes, this will help the airport.

This will help economic development, but it is the first step in relieving congestion long term along that corridor as that development occurs. And what I saw these elected officials doing on Facebook was asking the public to give them a polling of a road to the airport should be approved and paid for by the city of Ophina, which Mhmm. Sort of takes that out context because that's not what it is. Right. So I don't know that we can ever change that

Mhmm.

Part of it. But but I just wanna make sure the clarity is this isn't a road to the airport. This this is a road to Lake Mary Boulevard to relieve the congestion in this corridor, which helps, by the way, our neighbors in Volusia County as they go across the four fifteen in and out of Volusia County to work in Sanford as well in Orlando. So

Well, and it helps the citizens of the entire county in terms of their ability to traverse all of that.

That's right.

So are we so my phrase that I used probably was not the best choice of words, but I'll rephrase it because I'll say it again because, you know, if it wasn't good the first time, say it again. Should we drop back and punt in the sense that we are acknowledging that maybe there are other ways that the city of Oviedo in particular or other cities may want to partner with us in the use of the those gas tax funds? If this is something that they do not see the value in, are we open to working with them on different projects that they might consider? If this is something that they have put up the said, no. Thank you.

So I would tell you that I think the answer to that question is yes, but in all actuality, I think the county manager needs to be here for the discussion. He has led the charge with this from the beginning of it, in addition to Michel Mikisch, the CEO from CFX. I do think that this conversation needs to take place when he is here. My sense of all of it is, is that we are always willing to be flexible, And we are always to continue always willing to continue through an iterative learning process, which is what I think this is. So I don't think the immediate shift is to drop drop back and punt. It may be. I don't know. All things in consideration. That's where I think we are. So the answer is yes. Okay.

Yeah. I

Okay. I'd agree with you.

I think I think we've got a track record of that.

Exactly. Commissioner Darla, are you

Yeah. Got one more item.

You got one more item?

One more item, and then I'll be done. Just wanted to compliment commissioner Constantine. I heard that his talk at Earth Day at Wakaba Island was phenomenal. I heard a lot of the residents that were there approached me days after, and I wanna compliment you for your hard work. And one of the things that I heard from them was that whoever was orchestrating or moderating that Earth Day debate not debate, but commentary, they were able to have commissioner Constance be quiet for twenty minutes. Oh, of course. And then after that, he just let it rip.

All right.

Well done. End of my report.

Commissioner Zinbauer, bring it home.

Oh, my. Well, FWC is putting on a program called Wild Quest. It's an annual statewide scavenger hunt taking place April 25 through May 3, designed to explore Florida's wildlife management areas through the Goose Chase app, which is available at the app store, and players complete photo video missions to win prizes. So, we encourage folks to get out there and get carried outdoors and enjoy that. Also, Veterans Luncheon will be on 04:30 at 11AM. I think we'll see everybody there. The Golden Eagle dinner that I put together is the same evening. Hopefully, those that are available can make it.

Doctor. Lunch and dinner.

And then that's right. And then being that it is National Global Pay It Forward Day, I will let the next commissioner do their report. Thank you very much.

Commissioner Constantine, thank you for that.

Okay. Well, you very much. We had CareerSource open a celebration for a new program in Altamonte Springs at their public library. Commissioner Lockhart and I were there, and I think it's going to be an exciting opportunity for the citizens in that area of the county to have hands on opportunity for jobs and job training. I did attend the environmental services and utilities, and it was well represented.

Of course, a lot of people always loved to see those big trucks and various things. Not so many want to see the pipes for sewer, but that's okay. They I think there was a lot learned in that. I wanted to congratulate Seminole High on two things. First of all, they had a blue ribbon cutting ceremony for their new volleyball facility, Sand Beach Volleyball Facility, eight

courts. I'm sorry. Go, Knowles.

Doctor. Yes. It was no, it they mentioned and they are right that it's the best volleyball location in the in the county.

Was just wondering why the Greyhound was congratulating the Knowles. That's what threw me off there.

And volleyball. And no, but you're going to be interested in it. But yes, the eight courts, and I said, yes, is, until maybe we have other courts coming in Seminole County. Also, the Seminole High women wanted won the state water polo, and I hope we can have them in like we have the others because that's one of our favorite days when we have folks from our high schools that have won various state championships. So with that, with those congratulations to, yes, the Knowles, because it was, you know, as a lion, Greyhound, it is difficult sometimes.

But no, wonderful. I did speak at the Junior League in Winter Park, and I was happy to say that more than half of them that I talked to were from Seminole County. So that's great. Also, we dedicated the and and by the way, at the at the volleyball, Bob was also there. Commissioner DeLorey was there, and as he was at the Katy's Landing Pavilion dedication, you all remember that we waived the the fees for that.

They dedicated it, and it was an incredibly wonderful ceremony. The City of Longwood and Matt Morgan, Commissioner Morgan, had his fourth annual autism awareness. I know a lot of you attended. It was a great event, and I just wanted to congratulate them. Also, Rescue Mission Outreach Mission had their rescued runway.

Saw Commissioner Her in quite a nice Havana outfit there. It was a very nice event. Also, four on a sad note, and I think all of us know the contribution that he has made to this community, but I was at the celebration of life for Charlie Gray yesterday, very well attended, and was if anybody does not understand what that man has done for this community, all you have to do is look at the editorial of the Orlando Sentinel today.

The list goes on and on.

Yeah.

And also, the UCF is giving a fond farewell to Fred Kittenger this evening. He is retiring, and one thing that you've to say, you know, Fred internally looks youthful, but he would not be embarrassed to tell you that he is 67 years old, which is surprising, you know, when you look how youthful he does look. Tomorrow, the Leadership Seminole is having lessons in leadership with and a tribute to Pastor John Murphy, which I'd be well attended. Also, the Rotary of Lake Mary has taken over from the Seminole County South Rotary, the RAP program, Rising Achievers, which is always a wonderful thing, and scholarships that are given out for those students. That will be this Sunday, I believe, or Sunday or yes, on the seventh, excuse me.

And Commissioner Drory, thank you for being able to be there for me on CALNO next meeting. I did want to tell you a couple of other things. Number one,

This is the essential only version We of this

were awarded $20,000 from the FWC for bear cans. This is the second time, and I think that looking forward to seeing what the department is going to do with that. We have had a very successful and we are known as and recognized as the county that started the Urban Bear Ordinance, so I'm looking forward to seeing what that program is going to be. And last thing, I think we all can take pride in the fact that the Central Florida Zoo has decided to take the 13 remaining sloths, and there were over 30. The rest of them passed.

The 13 that were given to the care of the zoo as of early this morning are still alive, and they are more and more hopeful, but it is taking a drain on their dollars that they use for the health of all of their animals. And I would just suggest, and I know many of you have given in the past, but for those of you out in the audience, the Central Florida Zoo right now needs all your help in making sure that they can help survive, help maintain and survive these sloths, which were not planned, but they have taken it on to do. And with that, I am through. Thank you, Commissioner.

Thank you very much for that concise report, Commissioner Constantine. Everything that I had to say is gone except two very short things. One is I after the rescue on the runway, I was able to get over to the Sanford Airport to welcome home our veterans from their day in Washington. Our own supervisor of elections, Amy Pennock, was one of the hosts for one of the veterans. It was exceptionally moving, and I will tell you if you've never done that, it is well worth doing.

I would also give a great shout out to the airport and their entire team. They absolutely roll out the red carpet. It is a lot of man hours after hours. It was 10:00 at night and probably didn't get out of there until midnight, but work really well done. And the last thing I have to say is happy Mother's Day.

Yes. One other thing.

Really?

Happy birthday to Seminole County, 113 years old this past week.

Yay. All right. Well, who knew? Apparently, Deborah. I don't know.

She put that on my report.

Oh, look at you. Look at you.

That was a

trivia quiz at

one time. So that could have been a trivia quiz. All right. We have one public comment, sir. So if you would, Dominique, let us know the name. The name is Martin Winger. Mister Weir, if you would give us your name and your address for the record. You'll have three minutes.

Yes, ma'am. Martin Winger, 818 Silk Oak Terrace at Lake Mary in the crossings. Apologize before I didn't know your format.

That's okay.

I'm time

out of my day and work to come up here and

Understood.

I didn't wanna miss. As you know, there's been a lot of traffic light construction going on, and I'm referring to the crossings at this point in unincorporated Lake Mary. They started a project at the intersection of Greenway and Lake Park across from the middle school August '24. Came out with backhoes, trucks, they dug, they tore the place, all the heck. We've been waiting for them to get finished.

There's been delays and that's that's fine, it happens and we appreciate the work being done. The contractor that they have out there, TCD, has done the same damage at my warehouse over in Central Park. They came in and tore the place all the heck and walked away from it. Well, now that the project is finally finished with the traffic lights, I cannot get no cooperation out of them nor the county. I'm in the middle of a tennis match going back and forth trying to get all this sod repaired.

The property they pulled up on is private property. I've been asking for temporary workspace agreements. I hear nothing other than excuses. I've got emails to where, you know, we don't see there's any warranted work to be done out there. I've been told by the county you need to have pictures before they start these jobs. Well, in hindsight, went on Google Maps. I've got pictures. You can see all the beautiful St. Augustine grass out there. You can look on your county property appraiser map.

You can see the beautiful grass. October 23 through November 23. If you look November 24 through December, you can see it's a disaster. The Crossing Dresden has paid very good money to put all the sod out there. So this one corner across from the middle school is owned by the Lakeway community Lakewood Community, excuse me. So the contractors have been up on that property with backhoes and trucks for a year and a half. They was up there with backhoes, a big one, the first night. And then they've been having three, four, five trucks at a time coming out there and just idling. And if y'all happen to have St. Augustine grass, it don't reseed itself.

You go across the street to the Remington Oaks community, they've been tearing that intersection up as well, and this is all fine. You do what you got to do, but you need to put back what you've torn up. I'm a I've been a PM on hundreds of projects, whether it be digging up a yard, a field, a parking lot, and when I'm done, I leave that place better than I found it or equal to. But now I'm getting no cooperation in your contractor, I call them total chaos and destruction because that's exactly what they're doing, is walking out. And I need you guys to help me get this thing resolved. They went up on private property, destroyed it, and now they're walking away telling me there's no warranty or warranted work to be done.

So I'm gonna ask you to turn right around, and there's somebody that's peeking around from behind you actually runs that department.

Yes,

So I would ask that you and she, miss Allure Yep. Confer on this and she'll come back to us should she need our assistance.

But do you guys agree? Should you walk away Just a with it torn up?

Yes. Okay. As the district commissioner for the crossings, I would like to ask if you would be sure, Tawny, that our office is copied. This is the first time hearing about the concern, but certainly, we wanna make sure that all of our neighbors are treated appropriately. So we'll make sure that we get back with you, and and I would love to be, as the district commissioner, included in this conversation.

Another intersection that's tearing up as well. So it's it's ongoing. We just do what you need to do, we appreciate the effort, but it needs to be restored. That's all we're asking. Nothing more, nothing less.

We appreciate that. And, typically, in public comment, we it this is not a bounce back and forth dialogue, so we're gonna stay true to our format. But we've given you the resource. You've had your district commissioner step in and say we would be glad to ride alongside of you while we get this resolved.

I appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Have a

good day. Alright. No further public comment? No, ma'am. We're gonna close public comment.

Well, somebody's raising their hand back here.

You have a form filled out? Okay. Is it urgent? I'm just gonna Come on. But Come on, be as speedy as you can? We need forms filled out for public comment, mister Epps. We know that. Yes, ma'am.

I just want to thank Public Works. The area of Palm Springs Drive from North Street down to Central Parkway is very dark at night, and they have helped and were able to implement some new street lights even though this was not on their project agenda at the time that are part of the citizens of Robin Hill Homeowners Association and those that travel that area want to say thank you to Public Works. That's it.

Thank you. And would you, for the record, give your name

and address? Yes.

Don Ips, 144 Peacock Drive, Aldermont Springs, Florida.

Awesome. Thank you. And I have to tell you, I just thought you were waving goodbye. So I was not going to call you. So thanks. Thank you for that. I thought it's weird.

I was

just congratulating goodbye today. All right. Thank you. With that, it is time to recess the BCC meeting to report to a closed session. The regular meeting of the Board of County Commissioners is in recess, and the Board will convene a closed attorney client session requested by the county attorney.

The purpose of the closed session is to discuss strategy related to litigation, expenditures, and settlement in the pending Molloy versus Seminole County case. The closed session will be conducted in Room 3024 of the County Services Building and is estimated to last approximately one hour. Attendance at the closed session is strictly limited to County Commissioners Bob DeLaury, Jay Zinbauer, Lee Constantine, Amy Lockhart, and Andrea Her Deputy County Manager Tricia Johnson County Attorney Kate Latour and Assistant County Attorney Cassidy Perdue. A certified court reporter will also be in attendance to transcribe the closed session in its entirety. The closed session is being conducted pursuant to section 286.011, parentheses eight, end parentheses, Florida Statutes.

All discussions will be strictly limited to strategy related to the litigation, expenditures, and settlement. At the conclusion of the closed session, this the meeting shall relocate back downstairs, at which point we will close that meeting as well. So with that, ladies and gentlemen, we will move upstairs. There will be no break in between. We're going to go right into session.

Alright ladies and gentlemen.

Wait, we gotta wait for

the court reporter. Oh.

Where

is she? Right behind us.

Thanks for bringing that meeting I left at. No

worries. Happy to do it.

I

may regret that.

Yes.

I'm not I'm not 40 anymore.

We're ready. Ladies and gentlemen, our meeting is adjourned.