Brevard County Board of County Commissioners

Tuesday, November 22, 2022 5:00 PM Brevard County Board of County Commissioners 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way Viera, FL 32940 Commission Chambers Minutes Organizational Meeting November 22, 2022 A. CALL TO ORDER 5:00 PM Chair Zonka stated Commissioner Tobia is participating via phone; he is delayed with his flight to make it back in time; and she knows the Board really wants him to be here. Commissioner District 1 Rita Pritchett, Commissioner District 3 John Tobia, Commissioner District 5 Kristine Zonka, Commissioner District 2 Tom Goodson, and Commissioner District 4 Rob Feltner Present: C. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Commissioner Kristine Zonka, Chair, District V Chair Zonka led the assembly in the Pledge of Allegiance. D. SWEARING IN OF COMMISSIONERS Commissioner Tom Goodson, District 2 by the Honorable Judge Charles J. Roberts. Commissioner Rob Feltner, District 4 by the Honorable Judge Samuel Bookhardt III. Commissioner Goodson thanked those in his District that voted for him; he stated he is happy to be there; he looks forward to any and all good things that happen on this Board; and hopefully the Board can keep the meetings sweet and short and the people will be happy with the Board. Commissioner Feltner expressed his appreciation to all those who supported him over the last 18 months; he stated he appreciates his wife Veronica; campaigning is not always fun; there are fun days, but also a lot of tough ones, and his wife was there for all of that; there were a lot of people in Brevard County that supported him and he greatly appreciates that; and he looks forward to serving with this Board. He added he will second everything Commissioner Goodson said. Chair Zonka stated she would like to welcome them both to the Board; she is excited that there is going to be a full Board; and she is looking forward to serving with them. Commissioner Pritchett stated she is thankful to have them both on Board; it has been interesting trying to manuver with four Commissioners; she wants to make a wonderful observation on Commissioner Zonka; she has done an incredible job chairing this past year; Commissioner Tobia is not in attendance and typically Commissioner Smith would be presenting this, and she is sure Commissioner Tobia would echo this, but Commissioner Zonka has done the best chairing job she has ever sat under, this past year; and she presented Commissioner Zonka with an award. Commissioner Pritchett added Commissioner Zonka ran a great meeting; she got through everything quickly; and the Board has certainly been through some interesting things this year. Chair Zonka expressed her appreciation for the award. E. SELECTION, RE: CHAIR AND VICE-CHAIR FOR 2022-2023 Chair Zonka stated she is going to pass the gavel, and pass it to Commissioner Pritchett, because Curt Smith is not present, and she advised she would like to nominate Rita Pritchett as their next Chair. The Board selected Commissioner Rita Pritchett as the Chair of the Board of County Commissioners for 2022-2023. Result: APPROVED Page 1 of 4 November 22, 2022 Mover: Kristine Zonka Seconder: Tom Goodson Ayes: Pritchett, Tobia, Zonka, Goodson, and Feltner Commissioner Zonka congratulated Chair Pritchett. Chair Pritchett stated she appreciates it and she would like to know if the Board is good with what she would like to do; she has a little bit of time left to move forward, and she loves the way the women have run the meetings, so she would like to pass the gavel and make a motion for Commissioner Zonka to be Vice Chair. The Board selected Commissioner Kristine Zonka as the Vice-Chair of the Board of County Commissioners for 2022-2023. Result: APPROVED Mover: Rita Pritchett Seconder: Rob Feltner Ayes: Pritchett, Tobia, Zonka, Goodson, and Feltner Chair Pritchett mentioned to the Commissioners they will do very well to listen to the women, and they will work out just fine in the next couple years. Commissioner Goodson remarked to Chair Pritchett to please remember there is three to two. Commissioner Feltner agreed with Commissioner Goodson. Chair Pritchett replied they might be surprised how their numbers… Commissioner Goodson stated unless Commissioner Feltner starts dressing in a skirt, it is still three to two. Commissioner Feltner replied no chance of that. Commissioner Zonka stated Commissioner Tobia has been known to come in costume at times. Chair Pritchett stated yes, he has; and she thanked the Board. F.1. Permission to use current Chair’s signature plates. The Board granted permission for the Finance Department to continue using the current Chair’s signature plates for signing the Payroll and Accounts Payable checks until the new Chair’s signature plates can be obtained. Result: APPROVED Mover: Kristine Zonka Seconder: Rob Feltner G. PUBLIC COMMENTS Rick Heffelfinger welcomed the two new Board members; he stated they have a full Board now and they can get some business done; that was a pretty heavy oath that both Commissioners took; he is going to be looking and he tends to be critical; he thinks there are some people in Page 2 of 4 November 22, 2022 this audience that might agree; and he is going to expect the Board members to stand up to that oath. He added the Commissioners are going to be watched. He congratulated the Board on its little mini red wave; he went on to say considering the Board has two new Commissioners tonight, he is wondering if someone could answer a question for him; he does not expect an answer tonight but maybe in the future; the Board could use its time under Board Reports, to let him know their feelings on some things; he asked if being Commissioner is a full-time job or part-time job; he mentioned one might wonder why he is asking, because, some are stating that they think the $58,000 a year is currently too low pay for the job; if being a Commissioner is a part-time job this is not true; if it is a full-time job it may be true; and as an example, according to review of some Commissioner financial disclosure documents, there is actually a Commissioner sitting on this Board today that appears to have another job on top of being a Commissioner. He continued by saying is having two jobs wrong, absolutely not; some people have no choice but to have two jobs; the question he has is if the second job pays a $116,000 a year it has got to be a full-time job; for $116,000 he would think they are going to have to be putting in the time to justify that salary; and if the Board member is, how much time do they have left over for the other job that pays a measly $58,000; he does not know what the answer is but he knows where he would be; he has been very hard on this Commission in the past; he has accused certain members of not putting in the level of effort that other members have; he has never had an issue with Commissioner Tobia’s body of work and he thanked Commissioner Tobia; Commissioner Tobia does his homework, he shows his work, and that is done in Legistar; when someone brings legislation or their point of view for it, he expects them to show their work; it is something he learned in school a while ago; and he does sometimes have a problem with his positions and statements but never his level of work. He stated others do not and recently others did not show that level of work or put in what he thinks is the time; now that may be because he judged them too harshly; and he asked if someone has two jobs to do, when do they have time to do this job and how much effort can they put into it. He asked is being fiscally conservative still a republican value; he commented casually talking of busting the tax cap and instigating and talking of pay raises as a solution to fight inflation which some people call wage price spiral does not lead him to believe the Board is; maybe instead of raising taxes and paying more for government, they can look at ways to tighten their own belts and the people’s belts as well; maybe the County just cannot afford to keep the same services it has had in the past; everyone is having to tighten their belts; and he sees no reason why government should not also be tightening its belt. Sandra Sullivan stated last week they had a City Council meeting where they deferred on the second reading of their parking management plan and instead opted to reach out to the new Commissioners; she congratulated each on their election and being present today; she added they opted to see if they could get support to release all of the deed restrictions for Hightower and Pelican Park which are former County Parks with deed restrictions for 33 parking spaces, public park and no differential in fees; Ms. Sullivan showed a picture and stated this picture is of the property that is across the street and this is why they believe it is a real issue in here in releasing the deed restrictions; this property the Hightower Park property, is a State and Federal Conservation area; both State, under Florida Community Trust, and Federal, under the LW 5401; by releasing the deed restrictions it would permit the Sky Bridge, that the view property is still telling people coming into their sales office that they are putting in, it would turn that park into basically a tourist destination for a hotel; and the city indicated in their parking management committee that they desired to have dedicated city of Satellite Beach parking which would push out the County residents availability for parking. She stated she asked all the Commissioners that when this comes before them with the lobbyists on their behalf, that they have retained, to release these deed restrictions, that they think about the needs of all of Brevard County; Brevard tax dollars paid for these millions of dollars of parks which include the Page 3 of 4 November 22, 2022 clubhouse at Pelican Beach and that these parks are for all of Brevard County; so as a final reminder, three things, the County has done two legal opinions, one for the Sky Bridge which violates the existing deed restrictions, they did one for the differential and parking fees; and she would suggest, given that the County was partner and co-applicant, and part of both the State and Federal agreements, that this would open up liability for the County to release these deed restrictions. Robert Burns stated there is a time and place for everything, today is an Organizational meeting and he thinks they are here to celebrate and look forward to the bright future that they have with the new Board; there is a new County Attorney, two seasoned very effective Board Members, there is also Commissioner Tobia, that was a shot at him, and also Commissioner Feltner and Commissioner Goodson; he added he pays a little bit of attention to what goes on here; and he wanted to echo Chair Pritchett’s words about Commissioner Zonka because he thinks that this was, when talking about COVID, when talking about missing chairs, when talking about all these things that have gone over this last year, she did an exceptional job dealing with some very tough issues in the Community and he thinks the Board as a whole, under her leadership helped to try to facilitate that missing Chair and missing seat as well. He thanked Commissioner Zonka for her leadership and guidance; he stated he thanks the Board for trying to get that chair filled during that time through the Governor’s office; he hopes that the Board does not end up in that kind of situation again; he asked for their next Brevard delegation meeting that maybe that be something that is brought up to State Legislators to maybe put a timeline on the Florida Statute to kind of hold the Governor accountable to actually making the appointment in a specific amount of time instead of just leaving it open; and he congratulated the Board on a successful year and in the years to come. H.3. Rita Pritchett, Chair District 1, Re: Report Chair Pritchett wished everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving; and she stated she hopes they have time to enjoy family and take a little bit of time to relax and refresh. Upon consensus of the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 5:19 P.M. ATTEST: _________________________ __________________________________ RACHEL M. SADOFF, CLERK RITA PRITCHETT, CHAIR BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA Page 4 of 4