Report to the Board of County Commissioners
June 21. 2011
1- (Discuss with Hubert present) At the last meeting the Board directed that I review the activities at Public Works to see if I can make suggestions for improvements. The Board also directed Mr. Chipman to begin advertising to fill a vacancy with a starting salary of $21,200. After reviewing the situation I have asked Mr. Chipman not to advertise a starting salary of $21,200 because I felt that he would be repeating a cycle that he has already been through. A starting salary of $21,200 is so low in today’s world that anyone filling that position will only stay there until he or she can get a better job somewhere else. Mr. Chipman and other departments would be a revolving door of new hires coming and leaving.
I recommend the Board raise the minimum starting salary to $25,000 effective July 1, 2011. This will allow Mr. Chipman to advertise his current vacancy at a salary level that I believe would be competitive and would help retain employees. If the Board takes this action then it is proper that those existing county employees who are currently making less than $25,000 be raised to that same starting salary. There are 9 county commission employees below $25,000. The cost of raising the county commission employees to $25,000 for the remainder of the fiscal year is $9,949.
Ms. Doris Pendleton has 2 employees below $25,000. Ms. Pendleton will raise her 2 employees to $25,000 using funds out of her budget. No other county office has employees below $25,000. Board action.
2- (Discuss with Bill Mahan present) The Board directed that Bill Mahan’s secretary be cross trained with the Public Works secretary so that the when the Public Work’s secretary goes on maternity leave shortly that Public Works will continue to be able to produce their required reports. There is concern from Public Works that there has not been enough cross-training. Discussion with Bill and the Board.
3- Board action to have Chairman sign a grant application for the Sheriff’s Office for the annual FDLE Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant of $86,571. The Sheriff is required to work cooperatively with the two municipalities in the expenditure of these funds.
4- Inform the Board that the County has been approached by a Ms. Emily Traiforos, representing GoRail, and she is asking Board support for letters opposing the raising of weight limits on state and county roads to 97,000 pounds from the current 80,000 pounds. She included letters already sent by Liberty County Sheriff Donnie Conyers, and Gulf County Commissioner Ward McDaniel. The letters would go to our federal delegation. Board discussion.
5- Board action to approve a letter signed by the Chairman requesting the Dept. of Corrections keep state inmates in the county jail.
This letter was requested by Sheriff Skip Shiver. The Sheriff has met with the Secretary of Corrections, Mr. Edwin Buss, and the Sheriff was told inmates will be kept one more year in the county jail, but only one more year. Mr. Buss has told the Sheriff that there are only three counties left in the state that still house state inmates and that he plans to discontinue that program state wide by June 30, 2012. The Dept. has called to say that the inmate contract is late in coming, so Board action to sign the DOC contract when it arrives.
6- At the last meeting the Board directed that I collect more information regarding the Derelict Vessel Program. I contacted Mr. James Adams, Owner of Florida Small Vessel Recovery Program. His address is out of Tennessee. Evidently, the state has privatized the derelict vessel program. Only two counties have shown interest, Brevard and Franklin. Mr. Adams sent me a draft contract with a contract price of $246,010 if both Franklin and Brevard participate. If only one county participates the price goes to$492,020.
I told Mr. Adams that the price was out of the question. He then said he could remove all tagged vessels for $27,500 if the county provides fuel and a disposal site. Unless the Board knows about a significant problem with derelict vessels I recommend the Board not participate.
7- Inform the Board that its current Florida Boating Improvement Program applications, which were for bathrooms at the St. George Island Boat Ramp, and a dock extension at the Abercombie Boat Ramp are still under review by FWC. The award announcements will be made by July 1.
8- At the last meeting I presented the Board with another boating improvement grant- this one with the acronym BIG- “Boating Infrastructure Grant”. The BIG program is funded from the US Fish and Wildlife Service for the construction and renovation of tie-up facilities for transient boaters in vessels 26 feet or more in length. This program funds the development and repair of marinas, not boat ramps.
The county does not currently own any marinas and because of the risk of water pollution and closure of shellfish harvesting areas I do not recommend the Board pursue this program.
9- Inform the Board that the Legislature did not fund any Historic Preservation grants, so the Fort Coombs Armory repairs were not funded.
10- Inform the Board that while the Legislature did create a mechanism for the funding of land acquisition through the selling of surplus state lands, the Governor vetoed that proposal so there will be no land acquisition this year. The county had applied to purchase land on St. George Island as well as expand the county facility in Eastpoint on Patton Drive.
11- Provide Board with copy of letter written by Mr. Wade Brown requesting assistance in cutting timber by using a county road for access. The county has an ordinance prohibiting log trucks on county road because of the damage they do to the roads.
12- Commissioner Parrish and I attended an 8 County meeting in Fort Walton on Friday, June 17 to discuss with DEP representatives the status of the NRDA projects. NRDA stands for Natural Resource Damage Assessment and it is part of the federal Oil Pollution Act of 1990 which requires the responsible party, in this case BP, to pay for damages to natural resource or the loss of human use of that natural resource.
In negotiations with BP, federal and state representatives got BP to put up $500M to begin the NRDA projects. Florida will get $100M. Federal agencies will get $300M with some of that money going to projects in Florida. BP will put up another $500M at some point in the future, but the point of Friday’s meeting was to encourage the counties to look at their proposed projects and see what can be funded immediately so that BP will see that its early release of money was beneficial.
Franklin County submitted $50M for NRDA funding. The total submitted state wide was over $2B, but the state has cut the list down to $1.5B. The central part of the county’s request was $30M to rebuild oyster bars that were damaged by the over harvesting that occurred when the Louisiana oyster industry was shut down because of the BP spill. The other significant projects the county submitted were $15M for beach renourishment, and $5M to buy land and build additional boat ramps. All of the county projects made the first cut.
State and federal agencies put in for projects in Franklin County that we were unaware of. Significantly, state and federal agencies want to spend some $206M to purchase some 130,000 acres of land in Gulf and Franklin Counties between Lake Wimico and St. Vincent Sound. There were other projects for lesser amounts also in Franklin County, including some for dune restoration, and improvements at Bald Point State Park. The state also put in for beach restoration on Alligator Point, and on Dog Island and St. George.
The DEP officials will be coming to Franklin County at some point to discuss and refine the county projects. Board discussion on what refinements it would support in order to get some of the first $100M allocated to Florida spent in Franklin County. The DEP officials would like to start awarding money by Oct. 2011.
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