Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Charlotte County Board of County Commissioners regular meeting for Tuesday, March 11th, 2025. Let the record show all commissioners are present. If you wish, please rise for the invocation given by Reverend Dr. Brian Stelarsic of the Lutheran Church of the Cross, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you, my father and Son of the Holy Spirit, amen. Heavenly Father, wise King Solomon offered practical wisdom regarding work and labor. A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame. So I ask you to give diligent hands to our county staff, our administrator and commissioners that their labor is produced and abundance for all. And during our snow bird season, grant them wisdom, strength and perseverance to navigate the reports, to receive input of citizens, and to decide on motions that guide our county into a prosperous future under your divine care. And finally, as many in this season of Lent consider the sacrifice of your son, we lift up before you our own county employees, especially those recognized today, who offer themselves in the service of their fellow man. And we also remember along with our Vietnam veterans who sacrifice, we will honor later this month, bless them with your grace and mercy. Visit this chambers with your presence and peace. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Reverend. Next we have changes to the agenda, Mr. Flores. Thank you, Mr. Chair, commissioners. We have two additions to the agenda this morning. Addition number one to R1, it's the Englewood Beach Update. And the second addition is R2, and that is the hands-free cell phone use legislation item. Mr. Chair, move changes. Second. We have a motion and a second to move the changes. Is there any further discussion? Any opposition to the motion? Hearing none, passes unanimously. And Mr. Chair, move the proclamation. Second. We have motion and second to move the proclamations. Is there any further discussion? Any objection to the motion? Passes unanimously and Commissioner Bill Troux has the honors today. Good morning, everyone. Good morning, good morning, sir. We're going to start this off with the artist of the month. Whereas the Visual Arts Center activities in Charlotte County make a significant contribution to cultural expression in our county, as well as promote the economic vitality of the community through job creation, sales tax revenue, and aesthetic enjoyment. Whereas the Visual Arts Center of Sherwa County is charged with the responsibility of developing programs and support all artists, performing, musical, and visual. Whereas in January 2024, the Visual Arts Center developed the Artist of the Month program to support and recognize achievement by local artists. And whereas by providing works of art to be displayed in public locations throughout the county, these artists greatly enhanced our opportunity to enjoy their creativity. Whereas the Board of County Commissioner supports the visual arts center in its mission to support and recognition for these local visual artists embodied in the artist of the month program. Now therefore be it proclaimed that the month of March and April shall be known in all of Charlotte County as Tina Barnes visual art center artist of the month. Tina. And we'll make sure she gets that. Our next proclamation. Welcome home Vietnam Veterans Day. Whereas throughout the rich history of the United States, patriotic men and women have taken up arms and sworn oath to defend our nation, establishing an honorable tradition of dedicated service. And whereas on March 29, 1973, the United States Armed Forces completed the withdrawal of combat troops from Vietnam and the Vietnam War was extremely divisive among the people of the United States. And whereas members of the United States Armed Forces who served bravely and faithfully for the United States during the Vietnam War were upon their return home, caught in a crossfire of public debate about the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War. And whereas more than 3 million men and women served in the Vietnam War with more than 58,000, making the ultimate sacrifice more than 304,000 were wounded and more than 1500 are still missing in action. And Florida is recognized as one of the most military and friendly states in the nation with one and a half million veterans calling the Sunshine State home. Whereas Florida is home to more than 519,224 Vietnam era veterans making it the second largest population of Vietnam veterans in the nation and Charlotte County is home to more than 8400 Vietnam era veterans. And whereas Florida is the home to more than 467,000 Vietnam era veterans making it the second largest population of Vietnam veterans in the nation. Whereas the patriotism of those in uniform who continue to defend the time was truce and great freedoms upon which our nation was founded will continue to make our state and nation proud and serve as an inspiration for generations to come. Now therefore be proclaimed that March 29th, 2025, shall be known in all of Charlottes County, as welcome home Vietnam Veterans Day, fast and duly adopted today. And receiving this one is Lori Wiesenees. Sorry. Janet Deets, Susan Matthews, and Valerie Colbert. Sorry I'm going to put you to names. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next is National Vietnam Day. Whereas throughout the rich history of the United States, patriotic men, when it sounds like the same one. Do I give you the right one? I may have two of them. I had two of them. I'll give it to you when you come down. Okay, here we go, National Vietnam Day. Whereas in 1967, nearly 500,000 American troops served in South Vietnam along the 850,000 troops of our allies in the Vietnam War. And whereas we embraced the responsibility to help our Vietnam veterans and their families heal from the heavy toll of war, we remember the more than 58,000 who are memorialized on a black granite wall in our nation's capital, or having borne the heaviest cost of war. Whereas we also pay tribute to those who suffered as prisoners of war and for the 1,253 heroes who had not yet returned to American soil. And whereas the replica of the Vietnam Wall is a reminder of the service and sacrifice of those we lost during the war. Whereas we shall continue to show our respect to those we lost during that tumultuous time. Now therefore be it proclaimed that March 29th, 2025 shall be known in all of Charlotte County as National Vietnam Day pass until we adopt the dispoying. Commissioner Doich is receiving and then I'll give you the other company. So it comes to be lost in that situation. Did you get the right one? I'd take it back from the record's record comma. My car. Cheers. receiving and then I'll give you the other company. You want to write it down? Did you get the right one? I think back from Rick Comatt. Just wanted to quick comment. We consider Shala County the state's premier veterans friendly community, with almost 30,000 veterans here. And I just want to invite the community to come to two veterans events we have this month. One is going to be this Sunday at the Mous Lodge and it's going to be an all day event, but there'll be a very special program at noon time at the lodge where we have a survivor from Beirut and it's going to be a fundraiser for the Peacekeepers Memorial Tower at the William Art Games, Junior Veterans Memorial Park. The community is welcome. It's gonna be a fun day. The major activity is gonna be starting at a new time. And in response, and I have difficulty sometimes talking about it, but it's the 50th anniversary of while leaving Vietnam. And we're going to be memorializing that day on Saturday, March 29th at the replica of the Vietnam Wall. The community is invited. It's going to be a very, very impressive ceremony. We'd like to see you all there. If you'd like to come out, that'll be at 10 a.m. on the 29th. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, our last proclamation. Government Finance Professionals Week. Whereas the Florida Government Finance Officers Association is professional association founded in 1937 and serves more than 3300 professionals from state, county, and city governments, school districts, colleges and universities, special districts, and private firms. Whereas the Shaw County Board of County Commissioners, along with the clerk of the circuit court, and county comptroller, court administration, Charlotte County Sheriff, state attorney, property appraiser, supervisor of elections, tax collector, and the city of Punta Gorda offices, employ 93 government finance professionals who are dedicated to being conscientious stewards of the county's resources and providing finally accurate and transparent financial reporting to the citizens of the county. And whereas government finance professionals week sponsored by the FGFOA and all of its members, government, all of its member governmental organizations is a week long series of activities aimed at recognizing government finance professionals and the vital services that they provide to our state and our community. And whereas during this week government finance professionals throughout the state of Florida will be acknowledged for their hard work, dedication and leadership. Now therefore be it proclaimed that the week of March 17th, 2025 shall be known in all of Charlotte County as government finance professionals week, passing to be adopted today. With that, we have Rick. Rick Hart. Thank you again as always on this agenda to recognize our employees for their years of service. This group hit their milestones in February. If I did the math right, I added up it's 275 years of institutional knowledge public service. So thank you for that. I want to highlight, we've got 10, 20, and 30. For those in the five year group, you figure what a time to come into the organization, February, March of 2020. So it started kind of our unprecedented times of delivering public service in different ways. Obviously, you mean when you took over? Hand in the hands. And I thank them. They had to deal with me as a minister if I was, but yeah, you know, you think about it. I'm present at times a pandemic. A handful of storms, a couple of categories, four or fives, and everything in between. So I just want to thank the employees for their time served. I'll turn it over to Ms. Jody from HR, do the honors. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. OK, we'll begin with five years of service from Public Safety, Brianna Jacobs. Thank you. APPLAUSE From community services, James Dignello. From utilities, Sharon Myrie. Human resources, Michelle Windsor. From economic development Development Janet Johnson. Human Resources Joy Estaris from Facilities Management Anthony Pribble. from Facilities Management, Anthony Pribble. Also from Facilities Management, Pedro Agosto. From Budget and Administrative Services, Megan Hammrock. And celebrating ten years of service from Public works, Charles Peters, human resources, Kathy Corella, and public works, Jason Dugan. with 20 years of service from public safety Kenneth Bowers, from utilities, Delmas Castillo, County Attorney's Office, Karen Benach. Okay, and with 30 years of service from the Commissioner's Office, Diane Witten, from Public Safety Thomas M.E. And from Community Services, Monti Rodriguez. I'd like to acknowledge those who could not be here this morning with five years of service. Felix J. Hernandez from Public Safety, Carson Baris from Public Safety, Caleb Van Heldon from Public Safety, Daniel Thoman from Facilities Management, Elizabeth Lee from Community Services, and a 10 years of service, Hannah Brown from Community Services and Michael Morse from Budget and Administrative Services. Thank you. Thank you for all your service. We appreciate it. Look at all that hardware. Okay, as they clear the room next next on the agenda is public input, agenda items only. Anybody wishing to address the board during this portion of the meeting must fill out a card. State their name for the record and state which agenda item or items will be addressed. Remark shall be limited to three minutes and shall be addressed to the commission as a body and not to individual members. I have one card, Mr. Jeff Lustig regarding C1, E1 and R2. Hi, it's Jeff Lustig. I'd like to talk about the alarms, business alarms, as a business owner for 40 years in New York City. Falsal alarms are a large problem for small business owners. I think it's appropriate that they get them fixed. Not allowing our police to answer false alarms causes problems in the community. My only concern is the 60-day jail requirement may be a problem if it's mainly done at small business owners as compared compared to like a Walmart or something like that, just something to consider. The cell phones of while driving is an obvious thing. The only question is a lot of small communities are worried that that it's a secondary crime. It's done as a first crime to pull you over. It can be, some people consider it can be abused for minority enforcement. So it's just something to consider and ask the community how they feel about it. Finally, the finance, it's amazing the transparency and the clarity that we have that you can go through every bill that we pay and it's listed here right online. Also more graphs as our commissioner constants, I learned so much from the 6% of our income now comes from the interest on our 650 million dollar War chest for capital improvements and whatnot and that was a major change That's helped us And I had a great explanation from the controller of where that money has been put in. I was concerned initially that it wasn't invested in long-term bills, it was just like one year thing. I think we'd be losing money. And we had a very good year and our chairman was going to discuss about what that $640 million is about and how we have to prepay for our projects. Thank you very much for the pleasure. Thank you, sir. Anybody else wishing to speak? You'll have three minutes. I have no other cards. Anybody wishing to speak on agenda items only? Please come forward. You'll have three minutes. Okay, seeing nobody rise, we will move on to consent. Commissioner Deutsch. Commissioner Chu ex. Nothing, sir. I have nothing. Nothing. Commissioner Dawson's. Nothing. Move the have motion to second to move the consent. Is there any further discussion? Any opposition to the motion? That passes unanimously. Okay, we're going to move on to the regular agenda. R1 Englewood Beach update, Mr. Scott. Good morning. Good morning, sir. Good morning, Tommy Scott, Community Service Director. As asked, I told you I'd bring back an update on where we're at and some of the milestones and steps that we have in front of us to make sure that we can open up portions and then larger portions until we are able to get to the entire beach being open. So I'll start with just again some pictures. You've seen some of these before that show some of the damage and devastation that we have to some of the structures out there. Specifically the boardwalk and the on beach ramp accesses are still in disrepair. But we have made some progress. The picture on the left is what the sand sifting operation looked like. That was probably about a month ago. We were out last week and the amount of equipment at Inglewood Beach for the sand sifting operation is dwindling down to almost nothing as they redeploy onto the island. Public Works has done an amazing job. I've said it before I'll say it again, trying to clean up all sand that has been on the key But then also they've done been good stewards and helped us out by cleaning up on portions of England Beach as well. So we're very thankful for them I showed the picture on the left this was underneath the pavilion Which was about six and a half feet of sand that had piled up underneath there our teams have gone through and we're able to Clean that out we're making some progress there. The picture on the left shows the broken down edges of the basketball court. We've gone in and we're able to kind of clean that edge off, make it safe so it could be usable in the short term until we get to fully replacing it, but we're pretty comfortable with how that's moving forward. Although I hadn't shown pictures like this, but this shows you both the left and the right kind of show you as you're looking north and as you're looking south. What was the sidewalks that all buckled and had been just completely destroyed? Public works that take in those out for us. The picture in the middle show what was the wiring for some of our parking lot lights. So there are still some of those areas that we're still working to address. So I've come to you today with a couple different options for reopening of the park in phases. The first one, as you can see, I started outlining how the funding would work. There'll be some potential county funding to get things going. Insurance we've worked with, our risk department to identify some property in the open. There wouldn't be any FEMA reimbursement for any of these actions that we would take now. What this option would do is basically open up the southern portion of the parking lot and I've got a map that will show that here in a little bit. The cost associated moving the fence right now we have the entire length along the roadway which has been fenced off. would be basically bending that so that way it blocks off the majority of the park but opens up the southern entrance across from our Chadwick Park and some parking areas so there's a cost to do that. Parking bumpers all those got washed away during both storms so we need to be able to put those back in. As I've shown you pictures before, there's a beautiful vista from the roadway out towards the water with no dunes. But without that, then people can just drive out there. So we need to be able to reinstall our previous fence that we had there that got washed away. So putting up an environmental fence would post four wire. So there's a cost for that. I should probably point out and I didn't. So associated with each of these actions is the estimated time for us to be able to take that. I've got to roll up and recap at the end. So there's a cost for that. I should probably point out and I didn't. Also associated with each of these actions is the estimated time for us to be able to take that. I've got to roll up and recap at the end. Also with the screening, we need to be able to put up a wind screen on the fancy. We need to put a wind screen on that. So there's a cost for that. Because the restroom facility is not operational, will bring out portals so people will have a place to be able to use the restroom facility. We're working with stormwater with public works in the aspirate contract. Restroom facility is not operational. We'll bring out portals so people will have a place to be able to use the restroom facility. We're working with stormwater with public works and the aspirate contractor to be able to clean out. They're doing that on the whole key, but it would be something that they're working on. Signage, all of that got washed away, so we need to be able to put back signage. I will point out there is an estimated $4,000 a month, a month and that isn't a typo. That is our estimate to be able to go out every couple weeks and put all the signs up that say, hey, this stuff is broken. Stay away. made at $4,000 a month and that isn't a typo. That is our estimate to be able to go out every couple weeks and put all the signs up that say, hey, this stuff is broken, stay away, because I don't know if people are taking them as souvenirs, but they rip them off almost daily. So we need to be able to reinstitute and re-put those back out there. So that is something that our staff will do, but it's an ongoing reoccurring cost until we're able to reopen up or at least remove a lot of the damaged areas. And then the sight lighting, again, we were a long ways off from the sight lighting. Some of those areas that I showed you that had the mass amounts of just wiring. We're working to get those capped off so that way they're not a hazard, but there will not be any lighting currently until we're able to long term get that put back together. together. So just as a general recap, we're looking at about a $10,000 cost for the county, but then there's that ongoing month for portalettes and signage. Insurance will cover the cost of the environmental fencing, so that will be out of our property in the open coverage. So our estimated timeline to be able to do all of that is four weeks. And I put the caveat there, depending upon vendors. Because specifically, the one that is going to be a challenge for us and has been is the fencing vendor. There's just a lot of work and getting in there, hopper, and then being able to get them to come out and do that work. This is the estimates we got from them. But if they're a little delayed, then that will have that delayed. So that's option one. So this kind of shows you a picture looking towards the south. Basically this is if you're standing where the end of the boardwalk was, looking south. In this picture, you can't really see it because it wasn't done yet. But on the right is where the parking stalls will be. So it's asphalt road, crust gravel for the parking lanes. Public works has come in and given us compacted shell areas for the parking areas. So all of that work has been done. So this is kind of where the parking will be available. Kind of showing you the map of where this looks at. So basically the blue line in the middle, that's where we'll bend the fence. So that's where the boardwalk ends. So all of those parking to the south of it will be open and available. Also Chadwick is currently in and is in use being used as parking but will move that fence but everything kind of north of where we bend the fence will still need to remain closed while we work on option two. There's about 20 or 25 car capacity in that southern section of England would beach. There's about 50 across the street at Chadwick. And I will also say that we've always had And there's a walkout available on the northern end, where we were doing the sand sifting operation. We had always left a gap open so people could go through. They have been using that. It has been there since we put the fence up. So I know people said they haven't had access. There is parking is our challenge, but there was always that walkout access over there. Additionally, due to the limited parking, we've worked with Transit, so Hyde Maddox and her team we met with them to develop a kind of a pilot program park and ride circulator route that will pick up at Tringali Park by over by the community center drive people out to Ingwood Beach to a drop off pick up at Chadwood Park and then run that route throughout the day I I think they're looking, oh, it's on here. 10 to 4 is their hours of operation. They're looking to do that Monday through Saturday. I think this is a reasonable accommodation. The one that we can make to try and just provide access, knowing that we have limited parking. So we'll, I've got a map here. So they've run the route to make sure that it works for their buses. So we wanted to make sure we could do that. Here this shows the drop off and pick up location at Tringalli. So it'll kind of be on that western edge of the community center to allow them to kind of ingress, come back to the light across the road, come in through the park and then go out to the beach. And then Chadwick they'll come in and kind of drop off pick up right as you come as you come into the parking area There's kind of those double spaced areas when you first get in gives us that buffer will block those areas also cars can't park there So people can use that as their drop off pick up location Transit has always had the idea of exploring this into their service area So this gives them some them some proof to see if this is actually something that people would use. But we wanted to try and provide some type of access knowing that we have limited service. So I've got, that's option one. Do you want to do questions? Now we want to do both, and then we'll come back to questions. Any questions, gentlemen? Nobody's in the queue right now? Commissioner Constance? And then Commissioner Constance? just a quick question of the bus route. So what kind of a schedule would it be a few runs in the morning to get people set up and then a few runs in the afternoon? Is this something that they're? So it's every half hour. So they'll start at 10 and then it takes about 15 minutes, turning bonds, time of day, and how many people on the road. But it's about 15 minutes So start at 10 then they would drive to Chadwick Park They would sit there until 10 30 load people up drive back half hour so every half hour pick up at 10 Pick up at 10 30 and back and forth until that last run will bring people back and you're blocking off 10 spots for that This is it Chad this is a tringali I understand Tringali. Our operation is limited at the community center. It's only event-based. So, of all places in the park, that is probably the best place to be able to block off parking spaces. Don't disagree, but I mean, if it's a popular thing. Oh, well, so although I say this is the safest, or the best place to do it for its limited use, if you remember Tringali Park, it's parking on the front edge roadside, plus the backside, plus over by the park. So there's, again, if it becomes popular, I'll get with Heidi, we'll figure out about a route assessment if we need to add in those 10 spaces, but that was the reason we went with this park, proximity and its quick turnaround time plus there's an ample amount of parking on all sides around that park. OK. But what's the purpose of blocking off those 10 spots? So the purpose is so that when they pull in, it allows people to be able to load and unload without having to worry about cars being there or crossing in and around. All right. So it's not blocked for parking. blocked it to ease access for people to correct congregate and get ready to get on the boat. Absolutely. Thessaly on the other side. or crossing in and around. All right, so it's not blocked for parking, it's blocked to ease access for people to correct congregate and get ready to get on the boat. Absolutely. Thusley on the other side, that's why we're doing the double spaced areas. We'll block those off same concepts. So that way it's a safe unload and reload area. Okay, good, thank you. Mr. Dreck. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Quick question, I think I have my own answer, but I just wanna ask for through to Orkley, did you consider the Chuck N.D. report? We- Thank you, Mr. Chair. Quick question, I think I have my own answer, but I just want to ask for through twerkely. Did you consider the Chuck N.D. report? We did. So our challenge there was, it's a disjointed parking area, right, with different activities. This is the one that, when we talked to Transit, that they preferred thinking it was the best route around. So if it doesn't we can always adjust, right? But this is the one. As I was thinking about that question, I thought about the intersection at St. Cass and 777 and it's like it needs to be straight, not dealing with that. So. Which is why we did that area so that way they could come to the light at Spinnaker. Spinnaker, yeah. Turn then come back on the service road and then come back out. Yes. I left that portion of it to transit to try and determine routes and locations and this is what they came with as the best option. It doesn't work. We need to drive other things. We can definitely do that. We'll just see how this works from a ridership perspective. If there's nobody using it, then we know. And then option two will expand our parking opportunities, and thus probably making a little moot at that point. But really it came down to those crossing patterns and the access in and out. I doubt you feel that whole parking lot of. I don't think so either. I think you got, I think for parking, I think it is a better spot. And again, I thought about saying Casin. So, but I just wanted to see if you guys did that. Thank you. Yeah, I had a quick question. Yes, option one. for parking, I think it is a better spot. And again, I thought about the same castle. So, but I just wanted to see if you guys did that. That one. Thank you. Yeah, I had a quick question. Option one and option two. Are they designed to run concurrently? Yes. Yeah, OK. Yes. OK, keep rolling. OK, so option one is something we can do quickly, right? So quickly being relative, right? because it's still probably going to be an additional four weeks to be able to get our vendors on board and so on and so forth. Thus, if you all agree that there are some county costs that are going to have to go into this. Option two will work along the same path knowing that many of these things are why we have an option one because all of these things take longer time to get us there. Specifically, this one is where the county would fund, front and fund most of these activities, but the reason for the length of time is we will bid them out in a way that they, we include the FEMA language, which allows us to recoup them from FEMA on the back end. It's, this is a low risk option to be able to make sure we can do that. If we use county annual contractors, it doesn't include FEMA language, we're not allowed to recoup it. recoup it. This way allows us to bid it out so that way we can recoup those costs on the back end. Again, understanding the desire to... annual contractors, it doesn't include female language, we're not allowed to recoup it. This way allows us to bid it out so that way we can recoup those costs on the back end. Again, understanding the desire to minimize the amount of county dollars out. This maximizes our ability to get that back. So that's why this one takes a little bit longer to do. There is some additional property in the open for the rest of the environmental fencing and screening that will go through the rest of the park. So this one is to remove the fence, the entire fence of the park. So what would be left? So whatever it is that we bend and then along the beach road That again, we're gonna bit that out so that way it takes the time to do that. Buying the rest of the parking bumpers because again all the parking bumpers are gone. The full environmental fencing the reason we don't do the full part of it now is because we're going to have to go in and remove all of the damaged boardwalk sections. They can't get in and do that work if the fence is there. So it's better to remove all the damaged boardwalk and then come in and do the fencing afterwards. But that cost is part of insurance coverage under property in the open. We'll do the screening as well. Removing of the boardwalk, high price item, we're working to try and be able to get that done, but again, we're putting out. under property in the open. We'll do the screening as well. Removing of the boardwalk, high price item, we're working to try and be able to get that done, but again, we're putting out all of those bid packets, additional portlets, these would be in addition to what we have now, again, having 25 spots versus having a couple hundred, we need to be able to have additional, so we'll be able to spread those out over both portions of the park. stormwater again still working with public works to be able to have aspirate take care of that. Signage again we would have to just put additional science throughout the rest of the park. We want to wait until we get some of the removal done of the boardwalk so we don't install something that gets tore up so we'll just wait and that's why it's in this phase instead of the first phase. Site walk this is again the sidewalks that were removed will be I have to be able to put those back in. This option also includes resurfacing of the asphalt driveling. I said asphalt like Gordon does. I didn't mean to. Asphalt driveling. Again, still no site lighting. That's going to be a long-term project. We will probably, under this one, we will have to still block off the playground. It still has four storms worth of damage, so we'll still secure all of that. This one, county costs, 323,000 plus the ongoing cost for portalettes. The insurance will cover, again, the property in the open timeline. Again, it's about 180 days when we have to bid it, mobilize, and then get work done. So we're looking at a considerable five, six-ish months to be able to implement this phase of it. Beyond that is our full recovery from FEMA, which we're working on. Again, with four different storms worth of FEMA projects that we're working on, but that would be to replace the boardwalk. Working to get the buildings stood back up, all of the other amenities that the lighting, additional curbing, those kinds of things. We did do a visit out to the site with our team from risk. So they have looked at these options and believe that these are safe. The signage again was a significant concern because the boardwalk is open and available from the beach side so making sure people understand that it is a hazard and they need to stay away from. But they have reviewed all of these as well. Map. So this is, as you can see, there's no blue line because we took the fence completely down. I do highlight that the playground will remain closed. All of the boardwalk will be removed. We'll have the environmental fencing that will stretch the entire length, staging portlets throughout, and then we'll have the basketball court open until we're able to do a full resurfacing with FEMA, but this will allow us to open it up just for use, safe use. Those are the two options I have. Okay, thank you, sir. I have Commissioner Dorody up in Commissioner Chouek's in the queue. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Excellent update, Tommy. Appreciate it. I appreciate you and transit getting together to come up with a point. I'm going to look at this as being phase one of the reopening. Phase one A, one B, if you will. Yes, sir. As opposed to two different options. We need to do both. We need to get this beach open. I like it. Good plan. I'm supportive of it. Thank you, sir. Mr. Trex. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Tell me, you and I spoke about the ability or inability to be able to open up the entire front line of parking. Can you explain to the rest of the board and the people that are listening, you know, why that's not a good idea to try to do that? And I'm talking about all of parking along the road and moving the fence back to allow for that all the way. So... I'm trying to... Just do a track. Give it an area. Previous slides. So the challenge we have and what we ran into with risk is the amount of additional damage that gets into that area. There's curbing that's damaged, there's sidewalks that are damaged, there's additional light, electrical cabling that we haven't even gotten to yet. There is just the amount of damage that still exists on that portion of the park. We have concerns with risk had concerns with, we'll get to it. It's just a timing of getting to it, right? just because the process that we have to to be able to bid it with the female language to be able to recoup it, risk and our staff, we looked at these options. They agreed that option phase one is the best safest, quickest route to do now while we work on phase two. They were not in favor as we are not just because of the amount of hazards that are out there in that portion that are north of where we would put the offensive. So that is truly what it comes down to is the damage that's there, risks of assessment and being out there with us will get there. We just need a little bit more time. I just wanted the public to hear. This board is very committed to getting things open, but not if it's not safe. And so I just thought it was important for everybody to hear that we are looking at all options. We're trying to do what we can to get access to this beach. I was out there this past weekend and the parking all over the sidewalk on the beach side. There is no sidewalk on that side on the west side. So which I don't want to hear people complaining about. I was kind of of surprised but they do have the crossover and they have the sidewalks on the other side of the street and I have had brief conversation with Sheriff and they don't feel it the right thing right now be ticketing everybody out there. And so unless we really have some kind of major other safety issue with traffic, you know I don't do that, but they're doing it. And as long as they don't block that other access to the north, where you guys left open so people could go, because there's a lot of parking along that side too. But again, it's all about being able to do this safely, you know, keep people safe, and then of course keep the workers safe. Yes, sir. Thank you for that. That's a very valid point, but safety is always our number one as it is for the board. So thank you for drawing attention to that. Thank you. Yeah, I'm also- And of course keep the workers safe. Yes, sir. Thank you for that. That's a very valid point, but safety is always our number one as it is for the board. So thank you for drawing attention to that. Thank you. Yeah, I'm also in support of option one and option two concurrently to the phase approach to move forward. And I just have to say, I was out there yesterday, I walked the site. And obviously like all of us, we've been out there post hurricane watching the developments and how things are getting done and I've just got to say what an outstanding job staff has done public works that mountain of sand you know we had a recipient cited this beach and to walk the parking lot yesterday knowing what was there literally a month or two ago is just outstanding your team Tommy and I want the public to know something. So our staff members are not only doing their daily jobs. They're also acting as our Hurricane Recovery Specialist and Liaisons with administration. That is a herculean task to try to take care of our constituents as service services in the normal course of a day, plus have to deal with these technical issues of hurricane recovery. So I just wanted the public to know that staff is doing outstanding job from the administration right down to the directors, right down to the field personnel who are out there, and that needs to be recognized. I don't know how many communities, you know, well, South was Florida. I guess there are communities that have dealt with back to back, basically to back hurricanes over three years span. That is a lot. One is enough for any community, but to deal with multiples like we have. And the last two were surge events. That's a whole different story than a wind event. You know, recovery from wind and recovery from surge are two different recovery processes. And the fact that with FEMA, we have to delineate two different storms. What damage was from Milton, what damage was from Helene. And it was like a 10-day span between the two. We were literally just getting up and going with the first surge, then you have to deal with the second one. So who's doing all of that? Well essentially staff is, and yes we've hired some consultants to help. But you know, that prompted me to have a discussion with Mr. Flores the other day at my staff meeting, just like this board hired Brandon Moody about everything water, which was really a brilliant suggestion by Commissioner Constance. Because we were delegating that to different staff members and different departments, but to have one single point of contact that he can corral all this information, I suggested the Hector. He bring back a hurricane recovery coordinator. There are so many moving parts right now. So I told him to work on what kind of job description that would be. That position will pay for itself just in efficiency and getting these things done. Because when I have a question like I'm sure all of my colleagues have questions, sometimes you have to go to different departments. It's a lot of moving parts. I think having one point of contact to have those kind of discussions would really number one help the board in the decision making process, but help the public so we can get the information out better. So just to coordinate information on status and scope of the recovery. With that I have Commissioner Trux and the Q, then Commissioner Constance. Thank you. I just wanted to add to your comments. I agree with everything you said, but not only are our staff dealing with the regular jobs, the recovery efforts, but some of them are still recovering from Ian and also were damaged in Alina Milton. So they're trying to take care of this community at the same time, trying to figure out how to put their own homes back together. And so that's a pretty herculean lift. It really is. And I don't think that there are a lot of people that really put it in perspective, especially when they come down here for their winter housing, where their winter home is, and everything looks pretty darn good for what it is. And so they don't understand the amount of damage and the amount of suffering that actually took place here. And I know that people are frustrated, I understand that. But I just know that this board is doing everything in our power, again in a safe manner, to make sure that we're taking care of our employees, and we're taking care of the community all through safe operations. Thank you, sir. Commissioner Constance. Yeah, and not to belabor the point, I agree with Commissioner Nardority and you, sir, and Commissioner Trux's comments. And I just wanted to ask Hector, we had a position, we had a projects manager, and then we never replaced that position. Maybe this is an opportunity to again have a projects manager and hand them the hurricane title for the meantime. Hopefully we don't have to deal with that in the future. And then they go back to just being a project manager, but when emergencies occur, now they get activated to just focus solely on the hurricanes. Right? Did we have something? We did have a capital projects manager in administration. And we showed you a slew of positions that were vending through this budget process. So I appreciate the support we are working on what a recovery manager would look like. I would like to see it really more temporary. I mean, we are in, this is our way of life now, is at least responding to these types of storms. We had heard from one agency that just closed out. It took them 14 years to close out their storm. That took us 14 years to close out Hurricane Charlie. So we have five or six active storms right now. So I definitely hear the board appreciate the support. And we are working on, I would have put on item on the agenda to approve that. One FTE right now, If I didn't know, we were going to go deep into discussion, but we'll certainly leave that into, I think the other positions that we want to bring to you. You're absolutely right that staff is, they're wearing a lot of hats right now. So, you know, we want to make sure that that workload all gets the right attention it needs to have. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. I just want to go a little deeper on the Capitol Project slash recovery because if it's a recovery is a temporary situation or an influx when it's needed, you could still have that Capitol Projects person in place, I would think. But what happens when we go into recovery mode, how does that look? So if you guys can think about that and talk about it, I don't know if that's the right way to go, but it would, that way it wouldn't be bringing somebody temporary and send them down the road. It would be utilizing our own staff who's gonna be familiar with the operations and they'll learn the FEMA code. They'll learn all these things that they have to know, but that just might be the way to go. So anyway. Thank you. comments. Yeah, I had asked Hector to basically come up with a job description and leave it to him to figure out what he needs to execute on this recovery and then bring it back to the board for consideration. So that those were kind of the instructions. So any further comments on this item? I don't think we need a formal motion on this Hector or a Chinat or you know, I heard enough consensus to move forward. So go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go go agenda, we all received an email regarding the distracted driving resolution and I read it and I'll be honest after driving up to O'Cala to a fact event, it was a white knuckle ride and anybody who goes on the internet, you can see these social media pictures of these crashes where a lot of these commercial trucks have cameras embedded in the cab and they're showing guys literally on their phone crushing people because they're on their phone like this and that's the first thing I thought of when I saw this. Well, man, yeah, thank you. This is something that's definitely needed. I thought we had something at the state level in reference to hands-free, but it's not evidently good enough. I would support this, but can we add some other things for consideration here? Like, it's illegal to read and drive. It's illegal to put your makeup on and drive. It's illegal to shave and drive. I've seen it all. You go up and down the interstate, the Tallahassee, Orlando or O'Cala or wherever you see everything on the road and it's freaking scared. Well the shave and drive. I've seen it all. You go up and down the interstate to Tallahassee or Orlando or O'Cala or wherever. You see everything on the road and it's freaking scary. I mean people or I can always tell when somebody's on the phone. I was driving in a roadtunner the other day and I was behind two dunk trucks and the second dunk truck was all over the road. What was he doing at 6.30 in the morning? He was texting. And at this thank God nobody was coming towards him. And I was glad I was behind him. But yeah I think we I do support this and I don't know where we stop. Just common sense. Don't you can't make coffee either while you're driving. So this this resolution is specific to the data that is in our attachment. So we don't have data on makeup and the other things, but this is data driven. So, you know, it's the resolution is consistent with that. Commissioner Dordy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, I think distracted driving is really where you're going. No, whatever causes that is a problem. I'm sure if you talk to law enforcement people, they'll support that all day. But I think yeah, this resolution is a good place to start. It supports the bill. And so I'll move approval to the resolution. We have a motion to second to prove R2. Is there any further discussion? Mr. Dordy? Yeah, but I wouldn't have any objection to coming back with something about distracted driving in general in Charlotte County. I mean, he's absolutely right. I mean, you see it all the time. You know, people do it. It drives me crazy when I come up to the, it's a challenge going through the light. It veterans in King's highway as it is. But when you got people on their devices, and the light turns green, and you're sitting there for an extra 10 or 15 seconds because someone's obviously on their device and you can't get going it kind of gets irritating. Thank you sir. I think those comments this is also tied to HB 501 so I believe we should direct staff now that we're going to adopt this resolution maybe to change our legislative agenda in support of HB 501 and this resolution. That's part of my motion, sir. No, I just, I'm okay. He amended it. Okay, do we have a second? Second. Okay, we have motion in second for the amended motion. Do we have to vote on the amendment? This vote for it. Yes. Okay, so we have motion in second on the amended there any further discussion on the amendment? Hearing none the amendment passes unanimously. Another question. No, motion is amended yet. I just had another question. Well, but you okay. So you said is there any discussion? Is there any opposite to the motion? There you go. Hearing none. No, the amendment is handed. Now the amendment is handed. Okay, so we have a vote. Now we go back to the motion? There you go. Here we go. No, the amendment is handed. Now the amendment is handed. Okay, so we have a, now we go back to the original motion and second on R2 to move R2. Okay. As amended. Is there any further discussion? Any opposition to the motion? Hearing none passes unanimously. Thank you, gentlemen. Help me get through that. Okay, we are going to move on to public input. Any subject? Anybody wishing to address the board during this portion of the meeting? Must state their name for the record? Remarks on any counter related subject, shall be limited to three minutes, and shall be addressed to the commission as a body and not to individual members. There will not be any discussion. Good morning. Good morning, ma'am. My name is Sandra Barnett and I've been a resident of Charlotte County for 25 years. And I lived in Punna Gorder for 10 years and 15 years in Port Charlotte. A voter and my statements are pure and simple. My questions are pure and simple. We started our meeting with prayer. We prayed for wisdom, the wisdom of Solomon. That was a hard course for Solomon and it's a hard course for us. My questions and statements are about discrepancy in subordination. They're pure and simple. We have equal opportunity if the procedure is being in the county brought to board of of peers of insubordination. You stand before them and the answer is either yay or nay. Your records do not count. Your or seniority does not count. Your seniority does not count. Pure and simple, if you sign up for the county, if you work here for 27 years and somebody says you are insubordinate, if you answer is yay or nay, you have 30 days to get your comments in on your part and go before your peers and get your decision. The charges will be dropped if they're yay and your attachment to your record means nothing. If your charges are nay, your records mean nothing. Your recourse of employment means nothing. Your second chances of appeal mean nothing. You get no severance pay. You lose all your benefits. You lose your health insurance and you lose your pension. You're out. No money goes with you out the door. Preem and pre-insured board nation, you're given time. You have 30 days on your case. No money follows you out the door. Your worth acting does not count and only the charges before you pending on your case to the BBC is not permitted. Thank you ma'am. Thank you. Anybody wishing to speak? Please come forward you'll have three minutes. Any county related subject. Good morning county commissioners and everybody in the chamber. Florida used to have the most beautiful water at the beaches and rivers. Unfortunately, that is not the case anymore. Heal our harbor scientist Dr. Richard Whitman and team last week of the Charlotte County Legislative delegation meeting stated the peace river is dying. I have been telling all of you this for the last five and a half years. Later today, FDEP and Mosaic will have another dog and donkey show up in plant city about having four 8,000 feet 8,000 feet deep injection wells to put their toxic acidic, kindly laden wastewater. What could possibly go wrong? What? We've You've got fast food gypsum, radio, active possible roads. Where has our leadership gone in Florida? Democratic and Republican. I can tell you right down the trail and I'm a Republican. And there are a lot of Republicans like Tim Ritchie. Now I want to get back to, it was a great thing, Commissioner Constance decided to make the decision to get a water manager here, but that happened because Tim Ritchie, the citizen waters are in founder and president of March against Mosaic, have been here educating every one of you and everybody else in the state of Florida about Mosaic. And I came here numerous times requesting money to have what tested specifically the Settlement Commissioner, Deutsche, will back me up on that completely. Do you know who the only person in the state of Florida has tested the sentiment on the peace river? It's Tim Richie. Brandon Moody didn't. I would like to invite all five of you today and I will drive one of you. I'd like to see all five of you the accounting attorney and the county administrator at Plant City at four o'clock today. I want to tell you, our river in our harbor is what generates the money to this area. the Inbalance of the supply and demand of our homes for sale Commissioner Constance and Dordy is overwhelming right now. Have we had legal look into the moratorium that Mr. Richard Russell mentioned three years ago and I have continued to mention I look forward to seeing each one of you today at Plant City. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Anybody wishing to speak? Please come forward. You'll have three minutes to speak on any county-related matter. Good morning commissioners. Terry Barnett, former Charlotte County employee. I just want to tell you today that I truly believe in fair play and any of us in this room know that discipline is deserved if you're guilty. Whether you're a commissioner or whether you're an operator for the Charlotte County, you are held responsible for your actions and I feel that there's a lot of corruption in Charlotte County employees in employment maybe some in this room I don't know but I strongly suggest that you look into whether you're treating each individual, each employee, which if I'm correct, you are an employee just like I am of Charlotte County. And I strongly suggest that you treat us fairly. You'd be treated like an employee would the same. And if not, you know at all, that's truly injustice to all of us. We all are held up accountable for and should be above approach. And I feel that if you do something wrong as a board or as an individual, you should all be disciplined the same. I was terminated from Charlotte County and for language, bad behavior, requested a meeting with you, never received it, went through the arbitration and all right down the wire with the county. Well, I'm here today to tell you that I feel that we all have to be treated the same. And I feel like I'm discriminated. And I was wrongly terminated because of what has recently happened and with County Commissioner, I have been in talks with Governor DeSantis with the emails and I'm waiting on some information, but I just would like you to take this in consideration. I feel like if anything is done wrong and is investigated, and the findings are true, we all be disciplined the same. And I strongly suggest to you that you look into the misuse of management and their power Because I was a victim of that power being misused and it was not taken in consideration Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you Anybody wishing to speak you'll have three minutes please come forward on any county related subject Hello Jeff Lustig here This will be the last time I'll speak of this Your other members Commissioner Commissioner members, have given their opinion that you are dishonorable and that should resign. You've done some wonderful things for the veterans. I remember going on June 14th on Flag Day when you invited boy scouts and girl scouts on a great set of experience. People are uncomfortable being around you now. It shows we all get older and become less relevant sometimes through no fault of our own. I'm not the person that I was 10 or 15 years ago. We all lose a step. I was listening to you at a pre-agenda meeting talking about paying money for a program that doesn't exist or that you were corrected about. And that you're non-sequitor about, we were discussing a thriving job market and a vibrant career opportunities and your response was about grant money and using certain words for it. I didn't understand what the meaning for that was. Public employees can't speak out for themselves. There's an power imbalance between those two things. And it's very, to make people uncomfortable having to have to take your picture with you and having to listen to you right now. You're denigrating and making people uncomfortable. And somebody had to say it. You've had long years of service which are very good. But it's time to leave. Even the Pope retired and our president retired. It's time for you to leave. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Anybody else wishing to speak? Please come forward. You'll have three minutes on any kind of related matter. Good morning. My name is Carl Steinhoth. I'm chairman of the board of Rolling Thunder, Florida, chapter five. Rolling Thunder, if you're not aware, is a diverse group of like-minded individuals committed to keeping the POW, MIA awareness issues and veterans' rights issues in the forefront of political and public discourse. Our diversity comes from our members. We are young and old, male and female veteran, non-veteran, biker and non-biker. Many of our members are veterans and many ride motorcycles, however, neither of these qualifications are a prerequisite to becoming a member of Rolling Thunder. Make no mistake, we are not now, never have been and never will be a motorcycle club or organization. We are a national 501-C nonprofit organization where everyone volunteers his or her time and effort because we believe in our mission. Rolling Thunder started 37 years ago as a protest ride in Washington, DC with about 1200 motorcycles to remind Congress that we have POWs and MIAs that needed to come home. The last year we did the ride in Washington was in 2019. We had 1.7 million motorcycles in that ride. Since then, we have done it by state or by region. In 2020, we did not do one because of COVID. In 21, we did it in Melbourne. 22, we did it in Daytona. 23, we did it in Melbourne. Last year, we did it in Port St. Lucie. And this year, we're planning on doing it in Pentegrin, Lashley Park. We want to help support our community. We want to help the community spread the word on the POWMI issue and that is why we do what we do with our ride every Memorial Day weekend that we've been doing for the past 37 years. We look forward to coming here and doing this on Friday of Memorial Day weekend. We'll do a Gold Star Family dinner. Follow that by a candlelight vigil at the wall in Lashley Park. On Saturday we'll be in Lashley Park from two to eight. We'll advance, we'll have speakers, food trucks, vendors in the park. And then on Sunday we'll be our ride for freedom where we'll go from Lashley Park to Birch's Black Widow and at Birch they're going to have food and music for all the writers at the end of the ride. The event is open to the public. There will be no charge to get into Lashley Park to attend the event and listen to the music and enjoy the vendors and the food trucks. We look forward to doing our event here. We hope to see you all there. And we hope that you will support us in our endeavor of having this event here and We you know ask your support with Charlotte County Police to help us with Obtaining an escort for the writers from Lysley Park to Birds and we'll be taking that water to Flamingo to make less impact in the. Thank you, sir. Anybody wishing to speak? You'll have three minutes. Any county related matter? You'll have three minutes. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, board members and citizens. My name is Richard Patrick. Given the importance of Canadian visitors to our economy, I'm very concerned about the reports that there's an impending drastic reduction in the number of Canadians who will be visiting Charlotte County and who will be spending less money here, who will be buying fewer properties here in the coming years, because they're suddenly made to feel unwell Mine concerns are prompted by the Canadians' response to several actions. One, the protecting the American people from evasion, presidential executive order, which is a recent order that requires Canadians to register if they plan to visit the United States for more than 30 days. In addition to this, their dual and cross-border tariffs, the Canadians' genuine anger at target being targeted is the 51st day, and finally, their peak and dismay at their prime minister being demoted to governor. The significant economic impact of Canadians in our local economy should not, and must not be lost in our local officials. And all steps should be taken to minimize or staunch the diminution of Canadians who visit here a year. The importance is backed up by raw statistics. In 2024, Canadians made about 20.4 million visits to the United States, resulting in $20.5 billion in spending, along with 140,000 jobs. And according to reliable sources, an estimated 1 million Canadians spend up to six months went to an inflow to contribute an estimated $6.5 billion with a B to Florida's economy. Locally, in 2021, tourism supported about 10,752 jobs in Charlotte County. And about 41% of Canadians own real estate in Florida. In an all likelihood, they're probably owned in the similar percentages here in the county. Reports of state that even a 10% drop in the number of Canadian visitors to Florida could result in two million fewer visits to the state and the loss of about 14,000 jobs. If this happens, this could also result in similar losses for our county. I urge you to speak out about the negative impact that these various actions will keep Canadian visitors away. And I ask that you take all appropriate action to protect or local economy. Jobs and businesses are dependent on your action, foresight and planning. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Anybody else wishing to speak? Please come forward. You'll have three minutes. Any county related matter. Okay. Seeing nobody rise, we are going to move on to comments. Mr. Flores. Thank you, Mr. Chair. One item. I've got his follow up from our board, Capitol Projects Workshop February 18th. I'm with respect to the Sheriff's Request for Helicopter. He reached out at the workshop board, discussed the sheriff the UH-60 option, a black hall helicopter directed staff to find the funding source, bring it back to a future workshop. He had reached out, there is one unit available. He would like to issue or send a letter of intent or letter of commitment to the vendor to lock in the unit and get that procurement process underway. You asked for a funding source. We're recommending our advalor and reserves. We presented to the board last week in our first budget workshop. Those are strong, that's a strong balance, so we don't have an issue with that. We would do it a budget adjustment later in the year once the timing is, is and we have to start to work with the sheriff to make payments. But his first step is to make that letter of intent. So I'll bring that back to you. That's our game plan for your head nods or consensus and then we can relate to him to get that process moving. Commissioner Dordy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Flores, I'm totally in support of it. It will save us money. is the piece of equipment that we've looked at and he's looked at that we'll do the job for us I believe right? Yes, yes. I'm totally in support of it. It'll save us money. It is the piece of equipment that we've looked at and he's looked at that That will do the job for us. I believe right? Yes. Well, there's totally on board with it. It saves the taxpayers money. I'm on board. Let's move ahead with it. Thanks sir. Commission George Absolutely in time timing is important because my guess is we're looking at eight to probably 12 months if we wanted it today to try and get it here so absolutely supporting. Okay, the Army support as well. Okay, it still needs to come back though. Yeah, yeah, it's gonna come back. All right, yes, yes, move. So he can send the letter that want to make sure that we're on board and then we'll have to bring it back. Okay, is that it? Is that it? I'm wondering a thing to add to and thanks for Commissioner's recognizing, you know, our five year employees, all the milestones. I do want to point out two that reach their five-year milestones to, important to me, important to the success that we've had and the achievements we've had. And that's my two assistant county administrator Claire and Deputy County Administrator Emily Claire-Jubbin Emily Lewis So we all obviously rose to our positions in March of 2020 So they've been key like I said in all of our success So I just want to thank them and that's all of that. Thank you Mrs. Nolton. I don't have anything today. Thank you. Okay, Mrs. Tracey. Good morning commissioners, K Tracey, Fister, economic development director, thank you. One and two, just, I don't really have anything other than there was a discussion during the workshop about the wording on the big bold goal for economic development. And one and two, know have any questions or you want to go over any rewarding with me. I did propose some rewarding. I can tweak it more if you like. Just let me know. Any questions or discussion on that? Any questions? No. OK, thank you. I've seen it. I thought it was good. Awesome. Thank you so much. Okay. We'll move on to county commissioner comments. Commissioner Doich. Just two quick reminders about the event that we mentioned. One is going to be this Sunday. It will be at the moose on Loveland right near the Realtors in the Sheriff's New Office. And then the other event is going to be on the 29th that'll be on a Saturday and that will be at the replica of the Vietnam Wall and Pentegrino. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, there's been some chatter about gambling coming to Charlotte County and oh, some seekers going to have gambling and then, you know, I guess the city had it as an agenda item and so I just want to for the record read from our charter. Our own rule charter section 1.6 in reference to Casino gambling. The citizens of Charlotte County reserved to themselves the power to approve or disprove Casino gambling of any nature within the boundaries of Charlotte County. Therefore, if and when casino gambling becomes lawful under the Constitution, law of the state of Florida, no action may be taken by the Board of County Commissioners by the governing body of any municipality or by any elected or appointed official or employee of either the county or any municipality, the effect of which is to authorize to approve or in any manner to allow casino gambling to occur anywhere in the county, unless and until a referendum on allowing casino gambling in the county is approved by majority of the voters voting on the question at an election. So I just wanted the people out to know of Charlotte County, it would be your decision for that to ever happen here. And so maybe we can put to bed some of these, it'll gotten rumors that keep flying around in Charlotte County. So you will know what's going on all the time comes. That's it. Thank you, sir. Commissioner Constance. Yeah, and so I was in the queue to respond to that. And that was added to the charter in 2022. That's a brand new piece that was added and voted on. So the people voted to put that in the charter to be able to vote to decide whether or not they want gambling. Whether or not a compact deal is reached or any of that kind of stuff, it has to go to the Charlie County voters, meaning the next cycle. And so it can't just happen. I really appreciate you bringing that up because the rumor mill is out of control. And I just wanted to show and do already mentioned it to me the other day, but I have it in my hands now that you know, our tourist tax is basically staying flat. It's at a super high level. But last year, January was a million, 97,000, and this year it's a million, 68,000. So we're statistically in the same ballpark. And he, you know, his feeling is that, and I guess I'm in agreement that, you know, people heard we had a hurricane and kind of changed their plans. I think after Ian, maybe they didn't change their plans and they showed up and saw the issues that were going on. And this year, they decided, hey, maybe we'll take heed. The fact that these were some pretty decent events. And we just had a presentation on a reach complex. So we've been fairly severely affected. and let hope next season is we're better suited and we have a quiet year. That would be the best. Can the beach open is going to help? Thank you sir. That's it. Mr. Dordy. Thank you Mr. Chairman. I thought I'd take a couple of minutes and brief out on the National Association of Counties conference that we had up in DC last week. I'm a member of the Transportation Policy Steering Committee. Good presentations. You may recall a couple years ago there was a report put out by the National Association of County Engineers relative to, in the coalition for against bigger, they did an analysis of the numbers, the number of bridges per congressional district that would be affected by these bigger and larger trucks. And they've updated that study. It's about to be published. I'm going to try to get my hands on it. I believe, you know, I sent them, I think I sent a letter, as I recall, to Congressman Stuby back a couple years ago, relative to that issue. And a new report's coming out. There are fewer bridges, but the dollar value has gone up tremendously as to the impact of these bigger trucks. This legislation is starting to get some legs with certain areas of the country right now. So once I get my hands on it, I'll try to get it circulated, obviously, to the MPO members, and we go from there. But I think it's an important issue. The other, one of the other things that came up was a good discussion on EVs and charging stations. And it's going to be quite a challenge to deploy this. I mean, I can see obviously in the very urban areas of the United States, it makes a lot of sense. But the amount of power, I think it was Edison Electric, came in and gave a presentation. They indicated that the amount of power for a typical charging station, let's say 10 bays, something of that magnitude, was a power equivalent to a Walmart super store. So it's a significant infrastructure problem for the utility companies, for the power companies to try to figure this out. In the rural areas, I don't see it happening. At least not in my lifetime. It just doesn't make any sense. Hyberts? Now that's a different story. But pure electric, long ways to go. And I think that was the message I heard. And if you look at a map, you see it every time we have an election, national election, you look at the population, though, is in these urban areas and these highly concentrated. But you look at most of the country is suburban rural. And it's to deployment, unless they can figure out something along the interstate system. Again, how do you get the power out to these remote locations? So that's going to be an interesting thing to watch. But that's it. There were a lot of other things. There were some other good workshops. Gulf states had a meeting. South region had a meeting. There was a presentation on the future of 2025 on regulatory stuff in the United States. They don't have a clue. The bottom line is right now. It's so dynamic up there right now. They really don't understand where it's going. And a lot of the agencies that I was hoping to meet with on Monday last week didn't even show up to the event. So anyways, that's about it, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to add to that, I knew you mentioned the other day that to wait to talk about it here, so I don't sure what you were going to cover. I serve on the disaster reform task force, and I definitely want to give you an update on that. So there's been a letter sent to the President and there's an effort to try to get county representation on the reform council that they're putting together to a female reform council. And in my meeting with Congressman Stuby, he is friends with a new director of FEMA and he told Sammy, give me me a 15 minute call, we're gonna get this done. So we'll see how it happens, but Greg is gonna make a concerted effort to make sure that we have some representation there. And I ask for three areas to be covered. A budget and finance, emergency operations representation and then a policy representation person. So I'm trying to get three on there. The people that I've spoken to are, I think they're receptive to that idea. I don't know who's making the final decision at the end of the day, but there is a concerted effort and there's about 30 people that serve on that task force. So hopefully everybody's pushing their folks to push in that direction so we have representation there. But they don't know the problems that we have at the local level, if they don't have anybody representing local government in the room. And so that's an extremely important one. Immigration reform, interesting meetings on immigration. There wasn't, so the two meetings that I went to, the room standing room only in both. And one of them represented representation on the workforce. Carl Eckert from NAHB was there, and there were other people from some other organizations representing the hospitality industry, and I forget the other one now. And it seemed like all the questions were questions of policymakers, not the people that were sitting in the front of the room. And it was just an interesting, that was kind of a, didn't turn out the way I hoped that one would. And the other room, you know, there's a focus on enforcement right now. And there are those who believe in enforcement and there are those who think we're going too far. But what I can tell you is, is the reform conversation is getting lost. And trying to bring that back to the forefront, I did meet with Christina Gasner, who is the IGA and her government affairs staff person for local state and tribal governments. And she does know that we want to push that forward and get that back in front of the president. He had a bill, as you guys have heard me talk about before, that was nearly complete when COVID hit in 2020. And it had a lot of really good things in there to adjust in the industries that need people, to those that don't need people. So just doing what I can, on that forefront, the workforce is part of our problem when we lose construction workers, we grab a cost. When we have tariffs, we grab a cost. The endgame may come out and play out just great, but it's going to be a rough patch for a while. And so, just be prepared for that. And with that, I think that's all. Oh, no, I didn't want to talk about some of the speakers, particularly Doug Collins. Doug Collins is a secretary of veterans affairs. Doug is a former military served in the Air Force. Both Navy and Air Force. I think it sounded like he made two branches. I think he worked in two branches too. Doug is a former congressman, not a Georgia, ran for Senate and did not succeed. Great guy, a lot of enthusiasm for our veterans. I think we're going to see some really good improvements there. And I'm hoping that he and congressman's to be talked about. The congressman has the desire to allow veterans to go to their own provider, as opposed to having to wait to get into the VA VA and they would have vouchers to be able or however they work that out to to cover that cost so that they don't have this backlog. So I know he's going to be looking at a lot of ways to serve the veterans and improve what they have to go through short and those timelines and if that's something that came forward that would be very very good for our community and our state of forward. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Conses. Yeah, thank you. And I appreciate you guys bringing that up, because I forgot to give my thoughts on the NACO conference. So at the board meeting, Alex Meyer had spoken during the main general session, and he's the director now of the intergovernment agency at the White House. He's new to the job but I think he's really acclimating very rapidly. He told the story about, you know, Trump coming in and having a meeting with them and then and he said, hey, by the way, we're going to do those county days again, aren't we? And Alex said absolutely, sir. And then he turned to his staffer and he said what are these county days? So you know he I would I would assume very quickly in July again we're going to get an invite to the White House to the Eisenhower building to meet with staff so I'm very excited about that and I think we've got some really good anecdotal events that have occurred over the past few years, you know, ARPA. Having that money go straight to the counties so that we can put it on the ground with little delusion, little to no delusion, where the projects are actually getting done and we can show great improvements in our local communities and the money actually did something. I went to the to the showroom where the IGA people were meeting and I had a really good meeting with a fellow by the name of Chase Wilson. So he's the associate director as well. He's a really good guy. So passing his information onto administration, but you know he will be the fact checker. When we stuff in and we send emails and we're making phone calls and we're not getting anything returned, we're going to close the loop with Chase and he's going to then talk to these agencies and say, why are you not handling Charlotte County's issues? So I'm excited about that. I think this is the kind of stuff that we've been waiting for. You know, we haven't had me. Nobody's been listening to this for four years. So now maybe we're gonna actually get something done. That's it. Thank you. Just if I can add to that. Yeah, sir, go ahead. As we communicate with him, I'd like to make sure that Christina is included in that. She is the second command, so if we keep her in that loop, she's the one I had a meeting with. I didn't get a chance to meet Wes, but yeah, he's the Southern guy, so if we keep her in that loop, she's the one I had a meeting with. I didn't get a chance to meet Wes, but yeah, he's the southern guy, so he's going to be our contact. But like William was, it's like the second command. We want to make sure that they're tied in. Absolutely. And I look forward to re-engaging. I like Lucas McGowan. gallon, I like Julia Rodriguez, but they only were real communicative after Hurricane Ian. Other than that, there was not much contact. Thank you, good. Okay, that's it, okay. Okay, I just have a couple of comments. So it's been the practice of the board to have the chairman present our legislative agenda to the legislative delegation every year. And that's how it's worked. And being chairman this year was my obligation to do that. And I was first to speak. And I delivered our approved legislative agenda. Commissioner Doich, you came up and spoke after I left. I had a 10 o'clock appointment. But I went back and listened to the video. Another speaker, a private citizen, came up and spoke about the Manchester Waterway. You followed up with him after his comments saying that the board supported his request to the state legislature on the Manchester Waterway. And you went ahead and told a history and recounted your rendition of the history of the Manchester Waterway in a lock removal. So a couple of things. First of all, the board has taken no legislative action on the Manchester Waterway. And I can tell you that because this is our 2025 state legislative agenda that is board approved. And what does that mean? When you have a board approved legislative agenda, that means it came before the board. we voted on it and the public ought to see what the board is asking for for our delegation. This is the official request of the Board of County Commission on behalf of the citizens. You inserted yourself in legislative delegation and misled our legislative team into thinking that we supported some type of legislation for the Manchester Waterway. I had a contact, our both representatives, you tell them number one, the history you recited was completely wrong on so many different levels and number two, it's not on our legislative agenda and please don't consider it. So please sir, we have rules and we have process for a reason. Please let's respect one another's as commissioners, what our duties are. You were not supposed to speak on behalf of the board on legislative matters. It's not in here. And I also find the part of my obligation that whenever there's misinformation going out to the public to correct it to the best of my ability because one of the things that elected officials have to contend with is the mistrust that's out there in the community. And I think this board has always dealt with data-driven decisions, very transparent, very accountable for what we say. And I really would like to move on from this issue. But there are things being said from the diias that are inconsistent and just bad information. So at our last meeting, sir, Commissioner DuH, in regards to Mr. DeWan Harris, you swore on a stack of Bibles definitively that you never chanted fight, fight, fight. You did that from this bias. In your sworn testimony, sir, you were asked the question, did you ever jester with your fist in the air saying fight, fight, fight. Here's what you said under testimony, under oath. I don't think so, I don't think so, unless I was mocking something Trump did. So that's your answer under oath. But from the dias, sir, you said on a stack of bibles you never did any of that. That is not correct. I'll be honest with you. If I'm Mr. Harris, I mean, it's getting to the point where it's tantamount to slander. He's a private citizen. You're inconsistencies as I've talked about at the last meeting, and now every time you say something, it's just not consistent. Can we as a board move on from this matter? I really hope so. Commissioner Deutsch. I'm going to respond to that. If you read the testimony, and I'm happy to move on with it. The reality is I never made those statements because if I did, they would have been corroborated by the one person that was standing there that asked me not to bring that up. However, you know, I'm happy to move on with that and there's definitely two sides to that story. I don't want to be labored anymore. You guys, let me know where you're at. I respect that. I heard it. I just want to talk to the man, Chester. What I was trying to say because these people have been asking about, it was just trying to tell what the history was where I felt years ago and it was my opinion as a citizen. I went up to speak as a citizen and I made that point. I was just sharing that it seemed so unusual that when we opened up, I was trying to make the point that when we opened up and picked out the lock, we probably should have opened up the other things because they had been essentially dredged. And I was trying to allude that, that that we made a vote, but that we were looking into it because I think we have a survey coming up shortly. So I gave, I apologize if you think I gave a different opinion. That was my intent to share that I think the state had goofed up and that was my opinion a number of years ago, but that we are in the process of looking into it because we're supposed to be having a survey coming up in the near future. So you're- I know and they took that the wrong way. I think I did, yeah, I'm sorry for that. it wasn't my end. You were introduced as Commissioner Steven, our Deutsch, and you said the board approved the legislative delegation supporting what that individual said. You said the board approved. I am sure that you said the board is the board. I was trying to say the board is looking into it. Okay. There's a reason we have a designated person that speaks on behalf of the board and we read the script Yeah, I was speaking on my behalf Any other comments gentlemen our agenda is complete this meeting is adjourned