Report to the Board of County Commissioners
December 7, 2010
1- Inform Board that Rep. Patronis thanked the Board for direction on the septic tank inspection issue. He has written back saying he voted against the initial bill and is co-sponsoring a bill in this session to repeal the inspection bill. The past special session delayed implementation until July so there will be time to get the inspection repealed before it goes into effect.
2- Board action to write Commisioner-Elect Putnam in support of maintaining certain key personnel in the shellfish part of the Dept. of Agriculture. The letter specifically recommends the quality work of David Heil, Mark Berrigan, and Allen Pierce.
3- Provide Board with copy of the changes recommended by DACS staff relative to the Bay shellfish harvesting areas. Essentially DACS is moving some of the boundaries so that active oyster bars will no longer be split into two different management areas.
4- Inform the Board that the military operation that will be at the airport and in the surrounding counties in March, 2011 has been expanded to add another week of exercises.
5- Board action to sign FWC time extension for the Ochlockonee Boat Ramp until June 30, 2011. The Board asked for the extension and now FWC has approved it. The final activity at the boat ramp is being held up pending Withers Construction’s completion of a DOT contract.
6- Board action to appoint an alternate to the Transportation Disadvantaged Coordinating Board. The County Commission Chairman is automatically appointed but in his absence an elected official in the county, including city commissioners, will serve as the Chairman of the Transportation Board.
7- Inform the Board that FWC has written back supporting the development of primitive camping areas at Butcher Pen Landing. I met briefly with Mr. Louie Roberson when he was in town Friday, Dec. 3, to inspect the courthouse for the full FWC meeting being held in February, 2011. The FWC requests the Board select a representative to meet with the FWC and work out the details with them. Board action.
8-Inform the Board that the 10,000 square foot hanger at the airport is finally making progress. The slab for the building was poured last week, and the metal hanger will be erected shortly. Mr. Mosteller is still getting inquiries about the hanger and I have told him to let any interested parties know of the progress and for the airport committee to review any proposals and get them to the Board.
9-Board action to sign the $500,000 Energy Conservation grants submitted by the Governor’s Office. I have scheduled an energy audit of the courthouse and the City of Carrabelle tomorrow. The county knows the courthouse windows will be replaced but the City of Carrabelle does not yet know what it wants/needs to replace to conserve the most energy. The other part of the grant will be to install solar panels on the Annex roof. Mark Curenton and I will be in training on Dec. 9 to learn more about the grant requirements. This is federal stimulus money so there are a lot of grant requirements. I have contacted Governance to see if they are interested in any part of the administration as they did help the county get the grant.
10- Board action to approve the contract for Ms.Debbie Belcher to administer the CDBG contract for raising the approaches to bridge over CR 67. At a previous meeting the Board selected Ms. Belcher but the minutes did not reflect the Board voting on her contract.
11- Inform the Board that I received a letter from Opportunity Florida reminding the Board that it has chosen not to participate in the Florida Rural Broadband Alliance, LLC, and that the Board is no longer a member of Opportunity Florida. The Board will still be a Rural Area of Critical Economic Concern (RACEC) as that is a designation by the Governor. We will still have a voice in Opportunity Florida as the Gulf Coast Work Force Board is still involved in both Opportunity Florida and in the Broadband Alliance.
12- Inform Board I have been involved in a continuing series of teleconferences with county administrators from the 6 counties west of us regarding response and recovery to the BP oil spill. The latest teleconference was Thursday, Dec. 2. The summary of the call was: none of the counties (including the larger ones of Escambia and Santa Rosa) have a say or a seat in the discussion of recovery efforts or access to BP funds; NACo and the Florida Emergency Preparedness Association are trying to get the attention of BP for the affected counties; Governor-Elect Scott has not made any statements regarding the recovery so it is unknown what his position will be. Escambia County has adopted a Resolution that the other county administrators are taking to their respective Boards.
13- Board action on a Resolution being adopted by all 7 Gulf coast counties affected by the BP oil spill. The Resolution states that the recovery will be supported by a Unified Recovery Plan (which has yet to be finalized and is not part of this Resolution), that each county will request its state and congressional delegations support the development of a Unified Recovery Plan; that the 7 counties agree to establish a 501-(c)(3) to serve as the fiduciary agent for all BP fine dollars and other future funding opportunities as a result of the oil spill. The consensus of the group is that a regional approach is going to be likely to get dollars then 7 counties making their own individual requests.
If the Board adopts the Resolution it would then be presented to our local delegation.
14- The Legislative Delegation meeting has been set for Thursday, Jan. 6, at 4 PM, here in the Courthouse Annex.
15- Inform the Board that Mark Curenton went to the state Historical Board meeting ranking historic preservation grants to follow the outcome of the county’s Armory grant.. The grant was ranked 24th out of 49 projects. The county asked for $300,000. If fully funded the grant would install air-conditioning, and make other improvements to the building. The funding will be contingent upon the Legislature approving funds for the Historic Preservation program.
16- I have been approached by two individuals interested in a long term lease of the Armory with the intention of making the same type improvements listed in the county’s grant. They would be willing to make a $250-300,000 investment in the building if they can get a 20 year lease. They would continue to use the building for functions as they are in the catering business in Indiana. If the Board wants to move forward with a lease then we will have to see who else is interested in leasing the building as we can not just select someone to lease public property, but we have to advertise for proposals.
The benefit to leasing is that improvements would be made without having to rely upon state grants. The downside is that rental costs would go up, and the availability would be controlled by a private group. Board direction.
17- Mr. Chuck Colvert is on the agenda to provide an update on several items. My report is a supplement to his report.
A) Inform the Board that the Mr. Colvert and the Hospital administration is getting quotes to install GPS’s in the ambulances as Chairman Lockley had requested.
B) The Hospital cash balance was substantially increased last week by a $175,000 payment from the state of Florida for DISH and LIP payments. The state payment was late in coming and was not for the full amount as apparently the amount of those payments is being reduced by the state.
C) Mr. Colvert and the Hospital Board met in an application meeting with USDA to discuss the funding of the reconstruction of Weems Hospital. Mr. Joe Fritz, USDA regional director, has informed the Hospital that it meets the eligibility criteria for funding. In order to complete the application process, which does not obligate the county to actually spend any money, but it will obligate USDA on the interest rate it charges the county, the county needs to advertise a Request for Qualifications for Architectural Services for the renovation.
A requirement of the USDA application is that the county has an architect under contract to do the renovations if funding is approved. The application process and subsequent review will take several months and it is the recommendation of the Hospital Board to move forward the USDA application as the expectation is that interest rates will rise over time and so it is better to get an interest locked in soon. The current USDA interest rate is 3.75%.
Board action to authorize Request for Qualifications for architectural services.
18- Remind Board that the next Board meeting is Dec. 21, at 5 PM, in Carrabelle.
19- Provide Board copy of Mr. Dave McClain’s report on his trip to meet with Senator Nelson on behalf of the ACF issue.
20- Chairman Lockley has a constituent whose house was damaged in a fire last week. She has no insurance to do repairs. Her income makes her eligible for SHIP funding but there is a waiting list for rehab projects. The Board has $60,000 worth of SHIP funds reserved for disaster victims. Does the Board want to acknowledge this person as a disaster victim and approve up to $25,000 worth of SHIP disaster funds to assist in rebuilding her house? The $25,000 figure was selected as it is the maximum amount of money that could be spent on a rehab project.
21- Inform the Board that Monday afternoon I spoke with Ms. Georgia Baggette, 911 Coordinator with Fairpoint, regarding the cell phone calls that are not getting to the Sheriff Dispatch as 911 calls. They have pinpointed the problem in the Nextell cell tower that the calls came into. Ms. Baggette did confirm that Nextell does have direct connections from cell towers to the 911 trunk lines maintained by Fairpoint, but only Nextell knows when a tower is not operating properly. As a safety back-up, all cell towers have the ability to switch cell phones to a 7 digit phone number, 670-8500, but that is only supposed to happen when there is a problem with the tower. Nextell is still looking into the problem. Ms. Baggette said she would provide me with the email chain of her Nextell contact so that the county can monitor Nextell’s responses.
As far as whether all cell phone companies are paying the appropriate amount in 911 surcharges to each county, Fairpoint can not confirm that. Ms. Baggette said while Fairpoint would love to know how many cell phones are operating in each county so Fairpoint could determine the amount of businesses their competitors are having, the cell phone companies do not report number of cell phones. Evidently the surcharge is turned into the Dept. of Revenue who only reports total receipts to each county.
22- Board action to accept a clerical error on the Sept. 7, 2010 TDC budget the Board approved. The revised budget submitted by the TDC on Sept. 7 had a $9,000 line item for video production and $0 for miscellaneous distribution costs. It should have been the reverse- with $0 for video production and $9,000 for miscellaneous distribution costs. This typo has caused the Finance Dept not to reimburse the TDC for the large effort of tracking and managing the gift card program because there had been no money budgeted for that cost in the approved budget. Board action to approve an amended revised budget, dated, 9-7-2010, showing the two line items being corrected.
23- Provide Board synopsis of Dec. 1 article about the FDA being stopped from making any changes to regulations affecting the oyster industry. US Senator Landrieu from Louisiana is quoted as saying, “the new food safety bill ensures that the FDA’s over-reaching approach is abandoned for good and helps put us on a sustainable path forward to protecting the small number of at-risk consumers, while making sure our oyster industry is vibrant well into the future.”
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