Board of County Commissioners on 2026-06-09 9:00 AM

June 9th, 2026 Board of County Commission meetings. I m calling this meeting to order. Thank you so much for joining us. Let s begin with a moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, which is going to be led by Michael Drost, who s our U.S. Marine and veteran services manager. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under GOD, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. We have several presets today. The first is at 905 public comment, followed by 9:30 A.M. Lake Grove Water main Municipal Service Benefit unit uh. At 945 we ll hear a presentation about a dredging project at 505 or the conclusion of our meeting. We ll hear public comment again. There are two additional items today. Consent 19 is adopting a proclamation recognizing JUNE 19th, 2026 as Juneteenth Freedom Day in Martin County. R and p one is the Intracoastal Waterway and Okeechobee Waterway maintenance dredging project, up by update by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the non-federal sponsor, the Florida Inland Navigation District. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? Move approval? Approval. Second. There s a motion and a second. All those. In favor? I opposed. That motion passes unanimously. It s now time for proclamations. Are there any proclamations today? It looks like just one. One? Um. First we have up. Only today we have a proclamation declaring MAY 2026 as Mental Health Awareness Month in Martin County, Florida. The mental health of every Martin County resident and business owner is a critical factor in our area s emotional and economic stability. 44 million American adults, roughly 18%, are living with a mental health illness and 13% of American youth aged 12 to 17 are living with major depression. Raising awareness and fostering open conversations about mental health can promote early intervention, reduce barriers to care, and build stronger, more supportive communities. MAY was Mental Health Awareness Month and it is the duty of each and every one of us to provide continued, consistent access to mental health care resources and here to accept we have Gregory Jackson, ceo of New Horizons of the Treasure Coast and Okeechobee. Good morning. Uh, first and foremost, I want to say thank you to the board for your continued support. Uh, with your support, we ve been able to serve over 1500 underinsured and uninsured individuals providing essential mental health services and new horizons. We have a legacy of, um, providing essential services to those most in need. Uh, serving as a part of the, uh, safety net as far as mental health services for our community. So we want to thank you again for that and reiterate that, uh, we committed to, uh, continuous service, also advocating for our community to make sure that we can have the resources we need to respond to the emerging challenges. So thank you again. Here we go. Are oops. One, two. Three. 11123. Two. Next we will take up, uh, public comment. MR. Donaldson, do you have a. I do I have a prepared statement said this is, um, since we are in the election season, uh, politicking is prohibited, which is defined as advocating the election or defeat of a candidate for public office, either partisan or nonpartisan. This includes the use of words, date, signs, props, and or wearing apparel that convey a message of support for a person or group of persons. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, the first request to speak form I have is from Doug Farley, followed by Missy Harris. And as MR. Farley comes up, you ll have three minutes at the two minute, 45 second. You ll have a warning. Thank you. So before that starts, I was told I could show these pictures on on the monitors. Can I get some direction on how we do that? Lay them on top of that white square on the desk. Okay. See? Um, someone to help you. With that. Thank you. There we go. Great. I have to stand there and hold it up. So. Good morning. I ve been working with a lot of folks in Martin County. Your constituents, to try to convince this commission to work towards quiet zones at railroad intersections. Uh, we ve been trying to convince you to move this way for the quiet feature, of course, but it s also safer. And that s the part you re kind of missing a bit. We ve used, uh, explanations and discussions, and it hasn t worked. So we brought in some pictures where I brought in some pictures to help illustrate and show you that you can have a quiet zone, and it s actually safer when you follow the federal Railroad Administration guidelines for quiet zones. Um, this picture shows, uh, at an intersection in Rio that is not qualified for a quiet zone. You can see there s only one gate on each side of the road here. That the liability. That s where the problems happen. It s a suggestion. The horn is a suggestion. At this point, people who who use poor judgment will drive around the gate. And that s where the problem happens. We all agree that right? This next picture shows a, uh, an intersection in Martin County that does qualify for a quiet zone. Take a look at that. Ask yourself objectively why a horn would be necessary in any way to keep you safe here. You re physically barricaded from the danger zone. The no brainer. You cannot. You cannot pass through it. Even if you wanted to. That that qualifies as a quiet zone. And that s what makes it safer. The Federal Railroad Administration has a number of requirements. The biggest of these gates. I have another. Picture. It s another example of an intersection that does not have does not qualify for quiet zones. This is done at Monterey and Dixie. This is where last month, a 68 year old man was killed on his bicycle. Crossing this quiet, this intersection that does not qualify as a quiet zone. If it did qualify it as a quiet zone, it would have four gates. The sheriff s report says that that man tried to cross that crossing where there was no gate here. All the bystanders report that the horn was blowing. So it says it tells you a few things. Horn doesn t even work. And if there was a gate, there. Would that man be alive today? Because that would have been a physical barricade keeping him from going forward. So if you move forward for quiet zones, your residents, your constituents get some peace and quiet and a good quality of life. And they get this real safety to prevent them from from danger. So do the right thing to not go to quiet zones is irresponsible at best, and at worst, a liability. Negligence. So thanks very much. Thank you. Missy Harris is next followed by Derek Powell. Good morning. My name is Missy Harris and I live on Alaknanda Way. And I ve been a long time resident. I even had a business for 24 years here. What I am requesting is that the board put back on the agenda. So help me GOD in the oath. The oath? Do you affirm to tell the whole truth? Has left out. So help me GOD. I am requesting it to be put on the agenda for next week s approval. Next meeting. Approval, please. It needs to be reinstated. Our nation back to GOD. The PRESIDENT Even declared it. He knows that by honoring GOD, we can save this nation. On MAY 17th, he declared one nation back to GOD. Every PRESIDENT Has taken the oath. So help me GOD included. Every PRESIDENT. And you know who else doesn t say it is the courthouse. They have deleted it also. And so there is no accountability. I m asking for it to be put back on the docket and included in the oath. By deleting. So help me GOD, we are not honoring GOD and His authority over Martin County. I m asking it to be reinstated and to be put on the next meeting s agenda. Thank you so much and MAY GOD bless Martin County and America. Thank you, Derek Powell is next, followed by Jamilah Rolon. Escalona. Wow. Good for you. Good morning. Good morning, commissioners. My name is Derek Powell, resident of Cove Road. I m sure you guys are getting tired of me being up here because I know I am. Um, I sent an email last week just by a show of hands. Did anyone receive that? Okay. So I m going to reinstate that email. Um, three of three of the commissioners here have been out to my home, and I do appreciate that. And I welcome the other two. If you guys would like to come out and see what we re working with, um, here s the email. My name is Derek Powell, and I m here because I believe Martin County deserves better. I was submitted I submitted a complaint regarding the newly constructed sidewalk adjacent to the Pepper wood development. Several days after the last rain event. There are still sections of the sidewalk holding standing water sidewalks supposed to improve. Oh boy, I lost my track. I m sorry. Uh, let me get back to that. Man. A sidewalk is supposed to improve safety and accessibility, not become unusable days after it rains. As someone as someone who works in construction, deals with drainage, grading, and quality control every day, it doesn t make sense to me. Proper drainage should have been considered before forms were set and concrete was poured. Not after residents start pointing out the problems. What frustrates me most is the lack of accountability. If I perform work that doesn t meet expectations, my customers expect me to make it right. If a local contractor or homeowner builds something that doesn t comply with county requirements, they re expected to fix it. But when a large developer builds infrastructure that clearly isn t functioning as intended, it feels like everyone suddenly starts looking the other way. Taxpayers deserve better. I ve also been told by workers on site that the drainage basin overflow and the pond are essentially at the same elevation, not the pond. I m sorry. The berm. Maybe that accurate, maybe it s not. But if it is, it doesn t make much logical sense. Water needs to go somewhere. If the overflow elevation in the city and the berm are the same, we re creating a situation where drainage problems become predictable instead of preventable. I m not standing here just to complain. I m standing here to look for solutions. I believe we should all. We should bring all parties on site. Let s have a meet and greet. Let s walk the property. Look at the elevations. Discuss creating a swale behind the sidewalk and restore restoring a drainage path to the wetland the system can handle. Because we all know we re going to get plenty of rainfall. I m willing to be a part of the solution. If a swale or ditch on my property help solve the problem. I m open to that discussion. I m just going to keep going. What I m not open to is spending another $10,000 out of my own pocket to correct, correct issues that should have been considered before development ever, ever began. At the end of the day, it s not about the sidewalk. It s about accountability. Someone had an inspection there and passed that inspection. So your time is up. Thank you. I appreciate. It. MR. Powell, I will meet at the site with you again and with an engineer, and we will fix this. I think that d be a great idea. I do appreciate it. And thank you again for the funds available for the the hedges. Thanks. A lot. Roland Escalona, followed by Maureen Killian. Hello. Buenos dias. Again, commissioners. Um, if you guys forgot who I am, I m Camila Escalona, executive director of the harm reduction here in Martin County. Before I speak, I want you guys to look at my shirt for a moment. This is my sister. Okay. I want you to see her face. Not sure if you remember me mentioning to her. To you, to her at all. In me. And various chats in private as well. She lived with substance use disorder. She cycled through care and stayed in what we call a flophouse. She was unhoused for a period. She died because the system failed her. I am here, so you do not fail the people that are still breathing. Your presence was missed, by the way, last week at the Treasure Coast Opioid Task Force fireside chat that we invited you guys to. I do think the one law enforcement officer who attended, the only one from Martin County, which we re very appreciative to, that single officer showed more engagement than any of the elected officials that we ve come across that we ve tried to engage with before, after the MAY 19th Bocc meeting, and official from your county claimed on the news that unhoused individuals have an abundance of options. If they just asked the individuals that were here last time, I would say that they would beg to differ. It ignores the 21000 patient add up a cop cap cutting off that we mentioned to you guys last time, which by the way, is ready to be signed for reinstating, but it s still going to take 21,000 residents away from potential housing and hiv medication. When are we going to stop the lies? This board has proven that housing is a priority. You took action on Florida s rv and mobile park. You ve made quality of life a priority, allowing residents discussing and demanding action to stop train horn noise. But we are not misaligned. We re asking for the same thing, except the quality of life that we re fighting for. Survival itself. Last month was Mental Health Awareness Month. We just spoke about it again. Now. A resident asked today and last time put God back into government. I believe that means recognizing that GOD dwells in every single human being. GOD is in the person sleeping under that bridge. GOD is in my sister s face that you just saw. Putting GOD into government means putting humanity into policy. Therefore, I call on the board to add three specific discussions for the next session as it utilization strategy, correcting misinformation. And again, the Voluntary Community Advisory Committee. My sister shouldn t be on a memorial shirt for me to show y all. She should be living her life here with me. Quality of life means nothing without life. Put these on the agenda. Schedule the discussion. Hold yourself accountable. Happy pride, by the way. And GOD bless. Thank you. Maureen Killian is next, followed by Victoria Blake. Good morning again, Suzanne. Yes. Okay. Um, my name is Maureen Killian. I m the founder of Southeast Florida Recovery Advocates. I m on the. I m a board member of Right Light Services. Who job is to bridge the gaps. And I m Martin county resident of district one. More importantly, I m here as a mother to share experiences of the mothers in your all district. Every district. My son struggles every day to attain a long term recovery from substance use disorder. He survived what we call the Florida shuffle. I m here because not everyone does. 30 day stints in rehab is not a solution. It s long term care and long term lifelong support services. This is a follow up to our last meeting. I m back because the urgency has not diminished. In fact, it s growing and will continue to grow. We are living in an unstable economic environment, an ongoing war has driven up the cost of gas, food in everyday staples. Rent is out of reach for working families, with two people working, let alone for someone stepping out of treatment with nothing but the clothes on their back. The financial pressures bearing down on vulnerable people right now is immense, and it s pushing more men, women, parents with children, our seniors and our veterans towards crisis, towards the streets and toward the very predators. We re here to stop. We are facing two crises at once. The first is the body brokering the illegal trafficking of vulnerable people struggling with addiction and cycles through. It s a felony now, but we need enforcement. Second is the is visible. It s the homelessness. When insurance runs out, the people cycle through and are abused by predators. They re sign up and they are abused. They re induced to use again and build a higher level service for detox. This is a business model. Sadly, since our last meeting, I have had a productive conversations with MR. Michelle Miller and MISS Joanne Greene regarding safety inside recovery Residences, and I m grateful for their engagement. However, connecting with the appropriate Martin County Sheriff s Office liaison is becoming a little bit problematic. On JUNE 3rd, we had the Trevor Coast Recovery Residence. It was well turned out. We had people from Port Saint Lucie elected officials there, and some officers. A spark was ignited and our community is ready to act. I need to speak plainly about House Bill 1365. The law prohibits camping, public camping and sleeping, but it mandates unfunded mandate. Counties provide a shelter. Martin County does not have one. You cannot enforce a law that requires shelter when there is no shelter to offer. What we re left with is criminalization of people who have nowhere to go. A citation does not treat a disease. An arrest does not provide a bed. Your hhs department is updating a Martin County website, and i m thankful for that. For the with the laws that are going on and the dangers, and we re going to put up there like what I submit in our community red flags for when you re seeking treatment. And your loved one up. Thank you to to help you. So I appreciate it. And let s. Do the right thing here. As you say. Thank you. Victoria Blake is next, followed by Scott Butler. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning I want to start with a scripture that I think just really hits home here. I m Victoria Blake and I volunteer with, um, tent City helpers Jeremiah 2911 for I know the plans I have for you. You know it, right? For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope in a future. Um, I ve worked for corporate America for 33 years, and I have worked with and sold to some of the top fortune 100 companies, and my job was to identify their issues and problems and come back with very valuable and solid solutions. So a think about what s going on here in Martin County and it just baffles me. So there s a law that says that people can sleep in public property, but we don t have no solutions for them. We have no shelters, we have no land. And so, you know, I ll look at Vero, little Vero as a shelter in Martin County, which I think we would agree is a very affluent county. Um, does not have any solutions for our unhoused. And sadly, we re hunting down the unhoused with police and dogs. Um, Doug Schmidt was recently, a short time ago, was bitten by a dog on his finger. It got infected, and he eventually passed away. Um, it s very inhumane. So I think we are looking at three options here. We can rent land, buy land or build a shelter. Right? Um, I think about the land right beside Lehigh. Um, love and hope and action. Big piece of property. Property there. They said the owner will not let them sleep there. Let s make them a deal. Like, can we rent it for 1000 a month? Let s, you know, make it so he s get something back for it. But it s right there next to where they feed him and shower, and they can do their laundry. Um, can we buy a few acres? Um, I ve chaired various fundraisers in my life, and I would love to chair, you know, advisor, advisory committee or fundraiser to raise money for a shelter. And lastly, um, governor DeSantis passed the bill 1365. Can we ask the state for money? Since this is a bill, you know, that the county needs to, um, adhere to? Um, I m just asking again, Jeremiah 2011 not to harm them. Plans to give them a hope in the future. Can we be the hands and feet of Jesus? And I m asking officially if we can be put on the agenda for the next meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Scott Butler is next, followed by Angela Harrison. Hello. My name is Scott Butler. I was wondering if I could use the screen to show some videos I ve posted over time, because I m available. We have a policy that those have to be approved in advance. We have to be able to look at them in advance. Okay. All right. Well, then I won t show it. I ll just explain what I do. All right. So first of all, um, let s say thank you for hearing me out. You know, I want to say our community is one of those communities that are like no others. We have an environmental system where we have what we call the small two sawfish, which are frequently in our area. They re highly endangered, and they travel our oceans up and down the reef, and they go into our rivers and where they have their babies and stuff. So over the years, i ve been documenting it with my drone, and I ve become accustomed and fond of these animals. But during this time, I m seeing all these beautiful animals, including the endangered, um. Um. Small sea salt fish. They they eagle rays, the giant manta rays. I ve seen a sperm whale out there last year. Um. It s amazing the ecosystem we have out there. But as I m flying back in the day when we were doing the bathtub beach nourishment, I started seeing how all this toxic looking sand was being pumped from the river over into the beach. And I often had video at one point where some of the toxic sand coming out of the sailfish Marina was pumped directly out onto the reef. Well, at that time, I wasn t a licensed drone pilot, so my my pilot s my license. The videos weren t able to be used, which I gave to certain people in the boat water people. And they said, this is definitely criminal. So that time went by. So just recently, um, probably about a month ago, I started filming and seeing all this dredge work that was going from the Intracoastal Waterway that was putting sand out on an area which is right next to the, um, Bathtub Beach and Sailfish Point on the south end by the inlet. And during that process of filming that I was watching, you know, fish being pulled out of the pumps and dead fish kills, uh, whelk shells. Um, people coming up to me and sending me pictures and show me all these animals that have died because this pump system coming through and just being a resident in Martin County for most of my life, I also understand that with, you know, we had the Okeechobee waterways, always had dumping. And we know if we live here that water is toxic and that toxic water has nothing but to do but settle when it settles into the sand, you know, it s fine until it gets disturbed. So during this process, I was seeing all this pumping that was going on, seeing all this stuff being pumped up from the coastal waterway, being dumped onto this island that shouldn t even be there in the first place, which that s going to become a problem, I guarantee it, because our inlet is getting to the point where it s going to fill up like Jupiter Island. And this is just my opinion. Again, if I see it from a drone and you can really see that if you look at the videos at some point. But the point I m trying to make here, I m not against dredging, I not against bathtubs or the beach nourishment. I just wish that it could be done in a way. It was safer. Um, you know, by watching these things, I learned a lot on turbidity testing. I don t think there s much oversight on this project. Um, and who knows how much toxicity was put out into our rivers. I know now that our three reef systems are completely smothered with sand. They are dying. And they have. Your time is up. For years. MR. Butler, at 945, we re going to have a presentation that s going to address just those. That s why I m here. Thank you. Thanks. Angela Harrison is next, followed by Angela. Antonella. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I hope everyone s doing well today. Um, Angela Harrison, tent city helpers. I wanted to go over a few, um, I guess you would say facts in what? The cost of arresting, arresting unhoused versus building a shelter. It s actually 2 to 3 times more expensive than providing them with permanent housing and social services, while building and maintaining shelter will involve capital and operational costs. The revolving door of legal and emergency medical systems places a huge financial burden on taxpayers. Florida did a study and found that arresting 33 frequently unhoused individuals costs $171,000 per person annually. The annual cost to house is from 10,000 to 13,000 per person. Um, I ve done a little bit of research and I ve actually found an organization called The Source that provides something called the Dignity Bus, which I will be meeting with Tony, the gentleman that builds those this week. Um, to see what the, the price and the cost is so that I can present that to you guys. And I also notice that there s an article that we re building a $3 million dock in Stuart. But we can t we don t have any funds to build a shelter. I mean, that s kind of heartbreaking to know that we can spend 3 million on that, but we can t spend a few dollars on building a shelter. Thank you guys. Have a wonderful. Day. Angela. Antonella is next, followed by Dottie Lancey. Good morning, good morning, good morning. I m Angela. Antonella and I represent Hutchinson Island Preservation Initiative. And we re here today to express our concerns about the damage that s being done to the reefs and habitats in the Bathtub Beach area as a result of the dredging nearby. Um, we understand there s a need to dredge, uh, to maintain the inlet and the permit issued contained rules. And it also had restrictions designed to protect the environment. But apparently those precautions were not effective enough because the reefs are covered with sand and muck, smothering all living things which should never have happened. Hippy asks that all dredging please be halted over there until the proper protection can be put in place and any damage to the reefs be addressed. We know how much our Martin County officials care about our island that we all share in love. Hippie is confident that you will take action on this matter and save our reefs and habitats that are so vulnerable and beyond. Priceless. Thank you. Thank you. Dottie Lancey is next, followed by Kathy Ahern, and MISS Ahern is the last request to speak for my half. Good morning everybody. Good morning. Am I speaking into the mic now? You are. Good morning everybody. It s nice to see you again. Thank you for having me. My name is Dottie Lancey. I live on Hutchinson Island. I m also a member of Hippy, the Hutchinson Island Preservation Initiative, and I would. Before I go on with why I m here, I want to thank you for the excellent job that you re all doing. I really think that you re keeping Mountain County the most wonderful place in the world to live. And your constituents appreciate it. You listen to what we have to say and you act on it. You had listened to a lot of people here today, and you seem to be concerned about their, um, problems. And you re looking for solutions. And I think that s wonderful. So I just want to say thank you. Uh, I m here because I wanted to add my voice of concern to the. What s going on on the reef out there. Um, other speakers will come and speak about the permitted dredging. It s going offshore there. And the dangerous effects that it s having on the reef. The reef is very fragile. I m looking forward to hearing the presentation today on the subject to see what the problems are being addressed. I trust that the permits were approved with safeguards put in place to prevent any danger to the marine environment. But from what I hear from concerned people, this is not happening. Some oversight on the part of you all needs to occur to see that the permit rules are being kept by the subcontractors doing the work. Harm is being done to our reefs and we need to act now to prevent any more harm from happening. If the rules are being followed, then the terms of the permitting are not working and they should be reassessed. Please recognize the seriousness of this situation and do what necessary to correct it. Thank you. Kathy Ahern is next is the last request to speak for him. I have. Good morning, commissioners. Thank you for being here. Speak right into the mic. Oh hi. Good morning. My name is Kathy Ahern and I ve been a mountain currant Mountain County resident since 2011. I moved here and worked for hospice in Martin County for eight years. I ve worked in every section through Treasure Coast Hospice. I ve done the hospital s facilities, community. I ve been in the richest homes to the RVs out in the woods. And, um, I volunteer now at Lehigh. I m retired and I found the highway through Treasure Coast Hospice. We had a young gentleman, a war vet. His name was maybe Sam, uh, was at our hospice house when I worked nights there, and through Lehigh and Treasure Coast homeless. Uh, Commission. They found him an apartment. And that man got to live the last month of his life. He was in his early 30s. Lungs were shot from Afghanistan, and it meant the world. So when I retired, I wanted to find out about Lehigh, which is stands for love and Hope in action. And through Lehigh. I ve also met my friend Justin Ducas, who I ve worked with on Saturdays. We clean up after anywhere from 50 to 70 people. Every Saturday. He s there. He doesn t have to be. He also volunteers, uh, although he s not being paid. But he wants to give back to his community. And we have a tremendous amount of community support. We are almost entirely supported by the community. But what we need now is government connection. We need you guys. I would invite any of you to come any Saturday at noon. Come at 11. We have a church service first and we ll be happy to show you what we do. And the wonderful people our clients are. We have many seniors living in their cars. It s it s horrible. They have nowhere to go at night. Uh, you know, they are with walkers and and big medical problems and in and out of the hospital. It s not just substance abuse. There s many, many reasons I saw working hospice that people can become homeless. As many as there are stars in the sky, there are reasons people find themselves without housing and we have to do something. This is a six wealthiest county, and in Florida, you know, it s what does it say about us if we can t even take care of our seniors? Nobody should have to live in a car. Especially not when the price of gas. Thank you. And the next and last request to speak for my have is from John Dial. Morning. Good morning. First, I d like to speak on the plight of Derrick Powers. I ve been to his property several times, and I urge the commission to revisit the results of the poor planning and the impact of the sovereign homeowner on his property rights. Poor planning is negatively impacted. His access to his property and will not solve this. It should be resolved by the developer and not taxpayer money. Second, I want to go to the dredging projects that are on the agenda and recognizing that the dredging programs are essential to maintaining the navigation of waterways. I just hope that this time is better. Planned to not have the same result in public outcry. By the way, I ve been to both of those projects several times, so firsthand knows what those are about. Lastly, I d like to urge you to reconsider. Oh, there we go. I would like for you to reconsider the $74 million, no bid contract for the emergency Response Center. This is stated as a private public partnership. When private business, a private public partnership discloses all aspects of what your costs are, what your profit margins are, what your markups are, and every other aspect of that business because it s a partnership. Partnership means we put all the cards on the table. Plans are usually done to the nth degree and detailed prior to getting bids, and you should also know the path of the project. I ve done this in the past many times with NGOs in the case, and we all knew the cost of the materials, the mark, and applied what the labor rates were. Then you plug in the variables of the things like weather delays and material availability. You do not. And you do this all prior to making a decision on what the project would cost. Then for full public disclosure, it should be put out to bid with the rfa project or process with at least three bids if available, and it should be examined as well as a project of this size. I would advise even hiring your own consultant to give an unbiased opinion of what the cost and the guidelines would be. You can say this adds to the cost, but believe me, after supervising many, many multiple projects that are multi-million dollar projects, this is a safer project process than a no bid contract for the sake of public transparency, I would hope you would reconsider this project. And the last thing I m going to try to squeeze in here is, why don t we have a method for getting public input on issues, rather than all of us only getting our three minutes up here on a Tuesday? Something like a, um, Change.Org type situation that has secure electronic means for people to give their input. Thank you for your time and I hope to see you again soon. Would anyone else like to address us? Seeing none, we will turn to Commissioner comments. Commissioner Vargas. Okay. Uh, yes. I ll be addressing. Some of those issues that were just spoken about later on in this meeting. I was summoned two Sundays ago about this dredging project, and I did see the dramatic drone footage. I m a scuba diver. I appreciate reefs, I have I ve dove all over the world. But this is my backyard. I want to be able to do it here. And I did speak with our county manager that Monday. As I said I would, and I asked about best management practices with the water quality, and that should be paramount and complied with, with no exceptions. There was a huge public outcry that was deafening to me, and this created a viral community awareness. Um, my understanding is that this sand was taken from the shoal area and was put in an impoundment basin, and there it remains. However, there was a lot of turbulence, so it created, um, I think adverse situation. And I thought that the best thing would be to put it out on a barge away. But they said that was more expensive. So I m waiting to hear from what our presentation is in a few moments, actually, um, away from near shore reefs and avoiding further damage. So I m aware of this. I took action right away. Um, my understanding is this project is finished. Am I correct about that? Okay, so the project is finished. It s after the fact. I m sorry about that. I wish I had known sooner. I m going to just bring a little levity right here. Um, on another point, our, um, we have a four Mile Beach project that was completed, uh, MAY 2nd, and that was funded $15 million by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Thank you very much. Uh, and we needed to have this done obviously, before season. We re in turtle season now, too. And we also received an award from the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association. And, uh, this is an open to anyone interested in protection and preservation of America s coast. It has a multidisciplinary mix of coastal managers, professionals, researchers, academics, that type of thing. So, um, thank you very much. That is something that we can be proud of. And please do visit our beaches. We have beautiful beaches on Hutchinson Island elsewhere. Another thing, um, want to be able to talk to you, everyone about that can hear me or see me also, not just those here. Um, your own backyards. Um, you might want to take a look at them and say, gee, I really could use some help. Will I have the answer for you? We have our very wonderful extension offices with Master Gardeners here. That is right at the Martin County Fairgrounds. I put in pollinators. So what I did is, with their assistance, I was able to select plants that bring bees, hummingbirds and butterflies. And they have a lot of educational programs. They cover a wide range of topics, including agriculture, commercial horticulture, natural resources, environmental horticulture, family consumer sciences for youth development, and again, the Master Gardeners are there to make a positive impact to the community and school enrichment programs. School gardens, community gardens. You know that we re in a drought season or we re restricted. And also with our fertilizers. So we want to take care of our beautiful Martin County. So in the meanwhile, since I followed everything to a tee, they awarded me the gold level. Gold level. All right. So I m really proud of this. It ll be in display in my office. It is a free service to everyone. Even if you have a restricted lot. No problem. Anybody can do this. Thank you. MR. Capps. I m good today. I would like to add an unofficial item to the agenda. Today. I want to talk about the have a report from staff about the property tax legislation. Yes, ma am. Commissioner, should we add that to the end of the meeting? Yes, yes. I thought that s what we were going to do. Didn t we decide that? I don t think we ve decided anything. Well, I think Don spoke about that with me. Yes. That d be great. So we re going. To. Do that? I was planning to, but thank you, MADAM Chair. Yes. Thank you, Commissioner Campi. MADAM Chair, good morning, and thank you to, um, serious issues. I m going to bring up the first one is a recommendation to our staff that I had an opportunity to speak to MR. Donaldson about is that we do create, in our continuing effort to educate and inform the public about one of the topics that was brought up this morning, which is the centralized maintenance facility building. Um, this is not a new process. This is something that has been in the discussion phases. MR. Donaldson can attest for probably 20 years, the need for some type of a consolidation and a redo of our maintenance system, facility system, we then went through a process that was very public. There were several meetings. There was opportunities to speak. There were presentations in this chamber. I think most people grew up understanding that if you were bidding on something, you would get multiple bids. However, I was one of them. But that doesn t mean that there are no other techniques and and strategies that can be used for a bidding process. It had been successfully used by Indian River State College, and the folks that built the Indian Town High School was the first time I had seen it in. And that s here and obviously in Martin County. I was also skeptical of not doing it the more traditional way. It is one of the largest projects that the county has ever undertaken in terms of coordinating and consolidating. Many people that are familiar with this process. Remember that we ve even had conversations in years past of creating a really centralized, universal maintenance facility with the school district, the city of Stewart, our other municipalities, the sheriff s office, uh, in Stewart. We even looked at the property that used to be the driving range and now has a crematorium on the front of it. It s a brownfield. We thought that that could be something in an effort to save taxpayer dollars by consolidating all of these satellite, you know, technical services that are needed by an organization of this size. We then looked at property. We had many conversations on where the potential property, some of us disagreed. It was a healthy debate. Many different properties were considered and then eventually found our way to a piece of property off of Kanner Highway. That process of purchasing the property went through a whole vetting process. Then we got into how we would design the building I had and then, look, I get it. There s a lot of confusion and concern. Uh, because a lot of our residents have not been given the opportunity that we are afforded to ask questions of experts to find out exactly how the process went, to participate in the process before making that decision. Uh, it passed 4 to 1. That s why there s five of us, because there s five unique, uh, opinions up here. That s that the best representation for our citizens. And we approved it. I had then started to hear pushback and feedback from people that said, wait a second, I don t understand it. The Taxpayers Association, other s constituents had reached out to me directly, and I asked staff to consolidate and boil down this complicated process into sort of more bite sized info bites, if you will. And they did. Then I had heard more than the Taxpayers Association that came out with like a white paper discussing their thoughts and how they had heard about it and how they were informed of the process, and they shared that, which was very helpful because it was separate from the county. It was, you know, the Taxpayers Association is is, you know, 60, 70 year old organization. It s independent of the county government. They have no problem calling balls and strikes, which they ve done very successfully. They put out a paper. I still heard about it. So I asked our staff to create an info document like an info gram that explained very, sort of easily, very succinctly. The process. And I submitted that out to people that were interested in seeing it. Then I had a call from a very well-known Martin County resident who is very active on social media. Good for him. Um, most of the time I would agree with most of his positions and opinions on things that are happening in the county. Um, he called first. He put out a video. I m friends with him. I reached out to him. I said, why don t you come in and meet with our staff? One I was very appreciative of our staff at the highest senior levels to meet from legal, from budget, from general services and tours and come in. And he did. I don t think that meeting went the way that we were hoping. He still had many questions and concerns. He has continued to post. So what I m asking our staff to do is create a video not a half an hour long video, but a shorter video that can be social media friendly. Many of our people use social media platforms in all of their varieties as their way to obtain information. So I would like us to participate at that same platform to create with our staff the visuals necessary. The first question is why are we moving from where we are in the first place? The second question, what s the situation with the faa about having non aviation related business on the airport property? The next was the process of where did the land acquisition come from. Then the the design aspect. We didn just say, hey, build us a building. There was hundreds of hours of discussion and input. Then the financial portion. And how did we come up with this? 3pi think we owe it to our residents. They re expecting it of us sometimes, uh, certain controversial issues or topics peak. And then they sort of naturally fade back to a normal process. This one seems to be gaining more traction. I think it s a it s, uh, our responsibility to continue to inform the public. Will we convince everyone that it was the right decision? Probably not. But we need to continue to work on that. So that s first. The second one is probably going to shock most people. And that is I am one of the few people that has been involved in the Brightline train station discussion, negotiations. Um, settlement since the beginning. Commissioner Hurd and I Are the only two that are sitting up here that were involved from the very beginning, not the conversation of should the train come through Martin County. That was primarily out of our hands, but once it did, my philosophy was if we were going to, as residents, take all of the inconvenience of a train system coming through. Top to bottom Martin County, shouldn t we at least get the benefit of a train station? Now, if you remember those folks that were tuned in in the beginning, Brightline said they were only going to have a couple. Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm, Orlando. There was none for the Treasure Coast. There was very few smaller community stations that were even being discussed. Then they added Ed Ventura. Then they added Boca. Then they talked about the Treasure Coast and they said, well, we re not going to stop on the Treasure Coast. And then we negotiated and asked them to do that. And then it became sort of a contest. We did settle a lawsuit with Brightline. At the time, it was called All Aboard Florida, and we did get a certain amount of accommodations in that negotiation. Some are still valid, some are completed, some are not, and they seem a little more nebulous. I won t go into the history of Fort Pierce versus Stewart in the back and forth, but as you know. The station was selected. The community of Stuart was selected from the very beginning. My suggestion was that the station be at the fairgrounds, but the downtown business community, Stuart Main Street, a lot of our local businesses said if you put it down there, it s really not anywhere in particular. It would be much better for us as businesses to draw. All of the reasons I won t get into about the benefits of having stations. Some people hate it, but many people like the concept. But as it started to materialize, it started to get complicated. We had different set of partners at the county, at the city at the time, most of their administrative staff that was involved in the decision are gone. Several of their commissioners that were involved in the decision making and the approval at the time to partner between Brightline and the county and the city are gone. Some of our colleagues that were part of the decision making process have changed. There s new faces here since that time and now it s become obviously it s campaign season, so it s a big campaign issue. It s also gone from 30 million to 40 million to 50 million to 60 million. Depend on who you asking. Now they re talking about a number that s in the $80 million range. I don t remember agreeing and signing on to an $87 million train station. I don t remember that we were going to take on all the responsibility, but I ve stayed quiet because we ve been going through a process of receiving grants, trying to receive federal grants. So I left it alone. I also capitulated to allowing, from my perspective, it being put much closer to downtown Stuart on a piece of property that is county owned within the city limits, next to the courthouse. And we left it alone and we got the we got the award of the location, the finances have changed, the logistics have changed, the personnel. Even at Brightline, their senior management is basically different. People now. So I am requesting that the county staff, because the City of Stuart had voted with their new board, as is absolutely their prerogative once they re, you know, they had new commissioners come on the board, they changed their opinion and stepped out of the process completely. And we took it on. I speak to residents and most of them, although they could disagree on where the location of the station should be, most don t disagree that it would be good to have a station. Now, I m not saying everyone, but I think a majority of our residents would like the concept and the convenience of a station. Now, the other big elephant in the room is Brightline is up against the financial ropes, and maybe there ll be no Brightline. Maybe they will go bankrupt. I don t like this expression, but I ve been hearing it used. It was used during the recession. Certain industries or certain businesses are too big to fail. Think about this. It s not just my opinion. Think about it. They built a massive train system and station in Miami, in Fort Lauderdale, in West Palm, and at Ventura, in Boca, and in the at the airport in Orlando. They ve laid a double track from Miami to Orlando. All of the heavy lifting, the expensive, very technical and hugely expensive work is done. If you ve done research into how Brightline is working, their ridership, their cost per rider is okay. What is sinking? The organization is the tremendous weight of the debt of the work they ve already done. I think reasonable minds will agree. Brightline. Whether it s Brightline or a company that purchases Brightline or a governmental entity that has to take over Brightline, they ll be some train system on the east coast of Florida. Will we participate in it or not? Um, with that in mind, I would ask our staff to begin a conversation and discussions with Brightline leadership for the possibility of changing the location from where it is currently, which creates parking issues and other issues that are reasonable. Um, points that we disagree on. Back to what I think is a in my opinion, a good option, which is at the fairground that the county owns. If you re not familiar with the fairground, it it is east of us one and s basically on Dixie highway. It s north of Indian Street. It s owned by the county. It s approximately 11 acres. I don t think it would need more than a portion of that. The fair has been negotiating to exit the fairground property after 65 years to move out into western Martin County. So the timing of the fair exiting that that location and the if all of the puzzle pieces fell into place would be appropriate timing for Brightline station, it doesn t adversely impact neighborhoods. There s plenty of parking you re in between the busiest road in Martin County, which is us one. It s adjacent to the airport. It s close to where other industries are, where people could walk to the station. There s possibility of other economic development along the fairground property. That was going to happen anyway when the fair exited. There is other industrial and commercial lots and properties along that same corridor. One of the most important reasons I believe in moving is you ve all heard recently that the fec sent a response letter to former Mayor Collins about their concerns, and fec and Brightline. I think of them as cousins. They re from the same organization, but they don t necessarily agree. An fx big concern was that a station would interfere with the Saint Lucy River bridge, which is a big, big issue. And we ve had our marine industry and our boaters worried about and negotiating for quite a long time, and we ve have Bryan, Congressman Mast, to thank for bringing in huge multi-million dollar grant opportunities to replace a 100 year old bridge that, when it s in its down position, knocks out most of boaters from the western side of the county. We cannot jeopardize the future improvements of that bridge. The grant funding or the bridge construction and its work. If a station which some people like and some people don t, is deemed too close by the Army Corps of Engineers or the us Coast Guard or whoever s involved, then it comes off the table for me, because the more important issue for Martin County residents is replacing the Saint Lucie River bridge. If you move it further south to the fairgrounds, that issue comes totally off the table. If you think about, well, there s the possibility that if a train is in the station to stop, it could block intersections, not at the fairgrounds. I ve been out there many times to look. If you think you drive over the train at Indian Street, make the left onto Dixie and then travel the length of the fairgrounds all the way up Monterey. Excuse me, Dixie to Monterey, where the Monterey crossing is. You could fit three trains full length on that property. Nothing would block the roadways. The last point is this the the look and feel of the station prior to this ever being discussed, I had an opportunity with some of our staff to meet with the senior senior leadership at Brightline, and I gave them several options. I said, why do you have to build a brand new, big permanent station right off the bat? Why not do a temporary station like they do if you re building a new neighborhood? If you ve ever gone to a sales center in a neighborhood, they re beautiful. If you ve ever been to a major sporting event and they set up those tents and those those retail, you know, the gift stores and and the hospitality tents, they re pretty legitimate. And Brightline said, we can t do that. We have certain security issues and all these other things. I said, okay, if you can t do that, why not just build a much smaller train station? It doesn t have to look like Boca s. It could be a steward sized train station. And they said, well, you know, we have waiting rooms and administration and ticketing and restrooms. We need to have a certain look. I said, well, the most obvious choice would be no station at all. Why not just a platform where the train stops and the doors open, and you get out and you walk to your car, and if it really works, make it a proof of concept. Let s do that first and see if it works. And then you can tell Martin County residents and taxpayers it s time to build a station. They weren t interested in that at the time, but I think intelligent people have the ability and should change their opinions when the circumstances change. And that s what happened to us now. The circumstances are different. Our colleagues, I can t speak for them. They re hearing me say this for the absolute first time. I can t support the station in its current location at its current budget and price tag, because it is disrupting and destroying our community. It s dividing us. Friends are divided by this issue. I ve kept quiet because I wanted to see what was going to happen in Tallahassee with the property tax. I ve kept quiet because it s it s campaign season. I m not running, but it s campaign season and I don t want voters to have to worry about where do incumbents or candidates fall on. Are you for the bright line station where it is or not? It shouldn t be a campaign issue because it s really shouldn t be an issue. The version that exists today in Stewart at 87 million or thereabouts, I don think most people are interested in that. I m not. So I would ask staff, well, first off, my colleagues will have to hopefully agree at least to enter into that conversation. There will be a bright line system. We don t know who will run it, but we don t want to be left behind in a station. Uh, opportunity. Thank you. Is it time to comment or. Sure. Okay. Um, Brightline is in junk bond status. In case you don t know, they were sued by fec a number of years ago. Uh, this has been divisive in our community. Um, we are dealing with a lot of issues that have not settled yet. Last week changed a lot. We were anticipating. I was anticipating at least, that we d be nipped on our income, that we re going to be receiving in this county. Uh, we should not be discussing Brightline at the moment. We have other issues that that definitely take precedence. And I know that you really, really have been pushing for this, but I urge you to consider the alternative of being reasonable. There is only so much money to go around. Our taxpayers are squeezed beyond belief, and there should be no smiles from this commission whatsoever. This is a serious, serious concern. I deal with people all the time, and if you re a serious commissioner, you will listen to your constituents. Those are our bosses. There is nobody here. I don t think any time by staff should be spent on a losing proposition, I believe, and I can get you the name and his position was just found dead in London after he moved over there from fortress, from Texas. So you have to look at everything. It s changed from 20 years ago when you started looking at it, and you ve been on this board for quite a few years. Yeah, I m I m certainly amenable to continuing conversations. We have until, as I recall, JUNE 27th to JUNE 30th, 2027 to back out of the deal. Sure. Until then, we we continue evaluating all the options. Thank you. Commissioner Hetherington. Yes. So my turn to public comment. So thank you for that. And I agree with continuing those conversations. However they MAY shake out. And I saw MISS Ahern. Looks like she just left. But I had a note here to thank her for the invitation, uh, to visit Leah. I have had the opportunity a number of occasions and have been there, and I ve had a really good partnership over the years with the district two office, which is our office, and Leah, appreciate what they do. Well, gladly come back again and look forward to continued partnerships. And then I would say to Missy, who I wrote down, who spoke this morning, I don t know what particular oaths you re speaking of, but I certainly agree with you. And please get in touch with the office. I would, I would, um, support having GOD in our oaths. So. And with that, thank you to Army Corps for being here and the fine representatives a number of years. I ve had an opportunity to see your presentations at Florida Beaches and Shores. And thank you to Jessica and our ecosystems. You do a fine job presenting information, sharing that with the public. And thank you again for being here this morning. And I look forward to your presentation in just a few moments. MR. Donaldson. No comment. MISS Elder. Then we will take up our 930 preset, which is public hearing number one, which is the Lake Grove Water main municipal service benefit unit. Good morning, commissioners. Morning. Um, here. Uh. For the record, David Duncan, senior project manager. Oh, David Duncan, senior project manager with the Utilities and Solid Waste department. Um, Martin County Utilities received a petition from the residents of the Lake Grove community requesting that the utilities department conduct the ballot process for the provision of potable water services for 64 properties that currently do not have access to public water service. Um. Following the completion of the construction plans and the receipt of bids, a staff workshop was held on JUNE 2nd at the Board of County Commissioners Chambers. Uh. The purpose of the workshop was to review the project scope, associated costs, and the assessment process with the affected property owners. In addition, the department has received a Florida Department of Environmental Protection permit to construct the project and the lowest response responsive proposal was selected. So go to slide two. Slide two shows the site plan for the Lake Grove community for the proposed water distribution system improvements. Uh, the proposed project offers significant benefits to the community. First, residents will experience improved water quality throughout the connection to Martin County s public water system. The project also will provide a reliable and consistent water supply, including during power outages, power outages. Additionally, the installation of fire hydrants throughout the neighborhood will enhance fire protection for a potential potential reduction of homeowners insurance rates. The proposed assessment includes 64 properties representing 64 equivalent residential connections or irks, as shown in the slide. The project cost total is $740,900. Martin County Utilities contributed $110,000 towards the project, reducing the assessable amount to $630,900. The assessable cost is divided by divided equally amongst the 64 benefited properties, resulting in an estimated prepayment amount of $9,857.81 per connection for property owners. Choosing to finance the assessment. The estimated annual payment would be $964.86 per unit, amortized over 15 years, with an interest rate of 3.9% plus applicable fees. Martin County Utilities currently serves just under 40,000 water customers. The average residential customer pay uses approximately 6000 gallons per month. At the current rate of $2.56 per thousand, and includes a monthly base charge of $19.99. The average residential water bill is approximately $35.35 per month. Pending approval of the final assessment resolution today. The Department anticipates beginning construction in AUGUST of 2026. Construction is expected to take approximately five months, with substantial completion anticipated in DECEMBER of 2026. Property owners who elect to pay their assessment will have until AUGUST 1st of 2027 to submit payment, any unpaid assessments after that date will be placed on the annual property tax roll beginning in NOVEMBER of 2027. That concludes my presentation. Questions for MR. Duncan. MR. Canty. Barring any public comment, I appreciate the efforts of our staff. I thi