Brevard County Board of County Commissioners

• Item C.1.

  Public Works (Continuation from Workshop #1)

  approved - Marc Bernath, Public Works Director, stated he wanted to quickly refresh where he left off from the previous workshop, which was 10 slides in on Road and Bridge, which is the largest program; he finished the Transportation Construction Management Revenue Generating Report, the Traffic Operations and Facilities, briefly covered Road and Bridge budget funding sources, commodity increases, maintained assets, growth versus personnel, and a number of other miles of roads it maintains, which include of 1,232 center line miles; one Commission office suggested he open with a joke that he stop right now if the Board would approve everything in the rest of his brief, he figured he would throw it out there. He continued on slide 36 of Road Inventory Growth, new roads are added to the inventory each year due to residential and commercial growth; over the last six years on average, they have added four and one half miles of road per year through maintenance bonds as part of the development; over the last 10 years they has experienced a 12 percent increase of the paved inventory, making it second only to Osceola County, which saw a 17 percent growth in pavement; it is important to note that Osceola’s increase is largely due to their aggressive program for paving dirt roads, which he will get into later at the end of the Road and Bridge section; as far as saying four and one half miles of new roads per year, it is not just the roads, it is sidewalks, drainage, curb and gutter, parking, and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) improvements as well; and from a prior presentation, he mentioned there is roughly the same amount of Municipal Service Taxation Units (MSTU)and funding that it falls on. He stated getting into the Road Program itself, it is one of the biggest programs they have in Public Works (PW) as well as Brevard County; the Road Program does a strategic rolling five-year plan each year that is based on accomplishments, changes, revisions from the Board, or other past direction from the preceding year; the slide looks back at where it was and where it is going specifically for this program; in 2018 they had pervasive Countywide road failures, potholes, and it should serve as a cautionary tale to what could happen if they take their foot off the gas; prior to 2018, there was no formalized program and funding was based effectively on what could be scrapped together year to year, and however, the Board formalized a Five-Year Plan starting in 2018 and has been extended until today. He stated since 2015 they have spent $115.5 million on the roads, mostly climbing out of a very steep hole post 2018; funding for the Road Program is comprised mostly by the General Fund, but also supplemented by MSTU and gas taxes; to-date Road and Bridge has completed 598 miles of resurfacing, 73 miles of reconstruction, and 254 miles of preservation for a total of 926 miles, and again 1,232 of centerline miles; the chart shows blue as resurfacing, red is reconstruction and green is preservation techniques which he will share later; and there are fewer red miles because they are four times as costly. He stated the slide also shows the current level of funding to preserve more miles of roads over the next five years, and they intend to phase out almost all reconstruction, with some potential challenges, which allows them to refocus some of that limited funding on capacity, on safety projects, as well as other needs, which is fairly small; only $4.7 million is spent on reconstruction compared to $11.7 million on resurfacing and preservation; as they reduce reconstruction, the resurfacing and preservation is still needed in perpetuity and pegged to inflation so that they do not regress; the next slide shows really good visuals, as a picture is worth a thousand words, here the pavement begins to deteriorate from day one, so under ‘Good’ the Board sees fresh new pavement and on the opposite end is what failed pavement looks like; their factors cause deterioration rates, including traffic loads, climatic conditions, sun exposure, temperature, age, material durability, water intrusion from poor drainage, and construction and factors that cause deterioration, which may be different in each pavement section depending on all of those factors; and to effectively manage the network of paved roads, they begin with a Pavement Management Plan. He stated the strategic document outlines the systematic approach to maintaining and repairing the paved roadways; the Plan includes a central decision-making tool which is a Pavement Condition Assessment that generates a rating which is known as a Pavement Condition Index score (PCI) which provides a numerical evaluation of the condition of each road segment, zero being the worst possible condition and 100 is the best; the photo shows new pavement with a PCI of 100 which goes down to 86 PCI where there is no distresses and should only require routine maintenance; the Pavement Management Plan calls for applications of a surface seal, which typically it applies reclamite in year two and year seven; he was willing to answer questions if necessary but concludes with the last photo showing various patching, distressing, cracking, and wheel rutting, having a PCI which has failed of between zero and 25; and the different pictures show progressive deterioration, which will be helpful in the next few slides. Commissioner Goodson asked how he classifies a road that was built with only soil cement that cracks and people report their road is deteriorating. Mr. Bernath replied he starts with a Pavement Condition Assessment every three to five years, generally speaking, in 2019 they did a Structural Condition Index (SCI) and a PCI, but in the last assessment they focused on PCI that is all of the County’s roads; in addition, they have field teams that go out every year and ride every road, because the data is only one factor that may not pick up all of the challenges, so PCI does not actually address ride-ability of a road, it is really just the integrity; the field team drives the roads and recommendations are made by the Field Supervisors of which roads are at risk of falling into the next category, the list gets sent to Viera where they then look at it with the in-house Construction Team and Pavement Management Coordinator, and they do another pass looking at the roads, then come up with an initial list, getting together with the utilities and the municipalities, particularly those that are doing water lines, like the City of Cocoa and the City of Melbourne, and try to deconflict what they have going on so there is no pavement cut right after they… Commissioner Goodson stated his question is totally different; he asked how he qualifies a soil cement road that is falling apart when the homeowners say their road is falling apart due to cracks; and he noted if he knows anything about soil cement, he could put a foot of asphalt and the crack would come back. Mr. Bernath answered soil cement can have excessive cracking but it does not mean it is a bad road; and he wanted to describe the process they go through when someone calls they go look at it to see if something was missed, but they do not automatically go and pave. Commissioner Goodson stated there are very little roads being done with soil cement in the County due to environmental reasons; and he asked about Pug mix from SNL mines, is there a lot of Pug mix being done which cracks also like soil cement. Mr. Bernath replied they use a fairly decent amount of soil cement, but Pug mix, he did not know anywhere that uses it except one road in Commissioner Goodson’s District. Susan Jackson, Fleet Manager, answered they use Pug mix mainly if they do a pipe crossing as a temporary patch prior to the resurfacing, but they do not put Pug mix as a base mixture; and in District 2 there are a couple of roads that were dirt roads that they have pug mix on, but mostly only for pipe crossings over roadways. Commissioner Goodson asked if they only use concrete fill for pipe crossings. Ms. Jackson asked what concrete fill he was referring to. Commissioner Goodson asked if Ms. Jackson is talking about concrete mix, sand mix. Ms. Jackson replied yes, sir they bring it in temporarily until they can mill and pave. Commissioner Goodson asked if she found that to be good with the Pug mix, concrete and sand mix. Ms. Jackson replied yes, for the purpose of stabilization, but they would never use it for a base for a road base; the cracking from the soil cement, as Mr. Bernath stated, they let them know it is only a base that the road is not deteriorating; if they put a micro on that, any crack that is more than a quarter of an inch they seal them before they put any type of treatment on it; they are trying to get away from so much soil cement and are also looking more at the mixture; sometimes that mixture can have too much, the design mix, can have a little too much concrete in it; and they have been looking at that as well. Commissioner Goodson stated in the past, contractors put more in it to make sure. Chairman Feltner asked the Commissioners to speak into the microphone, he does not think the video is going to pick up him or her. Commissioner Delaney asked if the deterioration had anything to do with the quality of the material. Mr. Bernath replied it could; but a lot of times it is really oxidation, sunlight, water intrusion, or a number of factors, or a combination of each; they go out to bid every couple years to two different asphalt plants that have serviced the County that have pretty good quality control; Public Works Department inspects what is put down; and typically it is not the issue, but if they see it then it is ripped up and replaced. Commissioner Delaney asked what about best practices during construction, what are the processes of what they do, and are there different practices of what people go through to lay the road. Mr. Bernath replies if it is new roads there is obviously a host of industry standards and best practices; what is being talked about there is the existing road systems and going through a process to either extend the life, or when needed, repair or replace and that is straightforward; and it is just a matter of selecting the right application. Commissioner Delaney asked so there is no difference in quality as far as different companies go, or materials and practices that they do to rehabilitate the roads. Mr. Bernath responded there is a pavement categorization in Florida, they use SP 9.5 or SP 12.5, those standards must be met; Public Works (PW) heavily rely on Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) specifications because they do not have an independent testing lab and have to meet those quality control gates, depending on whether it is a friction course or a structural course; and certain roads need one or the other, SP 9.5 is standard. Commissioner Goodson commented that every phase of the road building from the fill dirt, to the stabilization, to the base, to the asphalt is checked by usually an independent testing laboratory to verify its construction standard to you; and he asked if that is right. Mr. Bernath answered yes; even for its own projects it has independent testing. He stated on road pavement conditions, the slide shows the results of Countywide pavement assessment from 2019 versus 2023, ranging from good to serious, as the Board can see, left to right, it is an industry standard to reassess pavement every three to five years and 88 percent of the roads right now are in a good, satisfactory condition, and the overall report card is an 86 PCI which is good overall; there are more good and satisfactory roads according to the chart, showing bright blue is more recent and the dull color is from 2019; in 2019, when the program was getting ramped up there was a 79 PCI, which grew to the 86 PCI; and in 2011, there was a 63 PCI which is fairly poor, but because of the investment it has seen a 76 percent decrease in request for permanent pothole repairs since 2020, so their work is definitely helping. He stated history shows deferred road maintenance results in more roads needing major rehabilitation and reconstruction which cost more as the chart shows; a typical cost for preserving a road is anywhere from $14,000 to $80,000 per centerline of mile and upwards from $865,000 per centerline mile for full reconstruction; and as someone does car preventative maintenance, they are doing the preservation which is extending the roads and not allowing them to fail, where they are very costly to repair; at this point, pavement needing reconstruction should not get worse, however, they are watching for a waterfall effect, where if one looks as good or satisfactory, it gets bad enough it falls into the next category; in 2018, staff had to start there to stop the roads from failing, have gotten a handle on it, but there are still roads that are in serious condition and very poor; and they continue to work on, however they want to continue to work on those roads to prevent them from deteriorating into a poor condition and becoming at-risk roads. He stated the focus through Fiscal Year 2021 was to prevent roads from getting worse, as the roads can degrade by an average of one to two PCI points per year and that means if they eliminate or cut back funding for resurfacing, which he mentioned the County needs in perpetuity, in five years that would be one to two PCI points per year, it would be worse than 2018, as it requires continual investment; by letting off the gas, that would be another $115 million plus inflation as over again, so in Fiscal Year 2022 an equilibrium was reached where the resurfacing money was moved to preservation, which he will get to on the next couple of slides; on the next chart it is symbolic of Best Management Practices and Pavement Preservation, which has been around for over 30 years and has been tested by FDOT and United States Department of Transportation, even the United States Air Force on runways, also it has been used throughout the State as well as the Country, just not in Brevard County; they began piloting this in 2022 because it was a great departure from what was previously done, which was running the roads to failure; and PW is continuing to do pavement preservation on local roads as it continues to ramp up by being selective so that it has successes and can build off of those out of an abundance of caution. He stated the key benefit of pavement preservation is cost effective, early intervention through treatments; instead of a pavement declining over 20 years and then needing to be reconstructed, as symbolically shown by the black line and then the dotted line on the chart, and then needing that rehab, as the Board can see that curve, it starts at 100 percent, but the decline over 20 years over the course of that, it gets into distresses and the pavement gradually gets worse; and people are riding on bad roads until they reinvest and that is not the best way to manage pavement. He went on to say by doing pavement preservation, it preserves the service life, delays the need for major repairs, and studies, as well as work throughout the country, shows pavement life can be extended 20 to as much as 40 years, it really depends on a lot of other factors; it keeps the roads in better condition, longer, which is depicted by the green and blue area on the chart; in the green area it drops off, but if they reinvest it is only a cost of $14,000 per centerline mile investment; keeping it up there longer, it can be stretched out longer; and is cost effective and gives the citizens better roads theoretically for the entire life of the road system. Commissioner Delaney asked if she had a road done in her community that reclamite was used and the people were not happy because it got on peoples cars; and is there another way to get it on the road, or can they shift the time, so it has time to settle. Mr. Bernath replied most people are out during the middle of the day, however, with reclamite it fully washes off, as stated he thought it was vegetable-based. Ms. Jackson commented three to four weeks, on a driveway, it can be removed. Commissioner Delaney stated it had been weeks now and the reflective paint is still orange. Mr. Bernath answered on cars, sidewalks, and driveways it generally washes off over time; any concerns the citizens have, they can contact the contractor, who will take a look at it; and in the past when staff has had issues with paving companies, they are responsible to fix those damages. Commissioner Delaney asked if they would pay for a car wash. Mr. Bernath stated he could not say definitively because it generally washes away, it is a pretty good product, and as soon as it is applied to the road, it can be driven on within 30 minutes; it is a quick application; they try to apply it during the day to avoid people who are at work, there is no really good time to do it; but he can check if it could be done at night, there are still issues like cars in the driveway. Commissioner Delaney stated not really the cars in the driveway, people were saying it was getting stuck in the undercarriage of the vehicle; she does see the value, and she is not objecting; and she wanted to ask if there was a different process. Mr. Bernath responded he would take a look; he stated on the next slide as the saying goes, Good roads cost less, and looking at the bottom left and right respectively, it shows respectively, a comparison of preserving a two-lane road and what it would cost over 40 years by diligently milling and paving every 13 years, avoiding the costlier two to four times rehabilitation or reconstruction if they waited for failure, versus what it would cost to do the pavement treatments; as shown on the left side of the chart, there is a 40-year cost for two-lane road, which is roughly $200,000 cheaper; and this is not just about being cheaper but keeping the roads in better shape longer, which has significant value. He commented switching to Road Backlog by District; there will always be some level of backlog; these are roads that are under 66 PCI; unless the County wants to spend more money, he thinks the monies which have been afforded to PW by the Board, have shown they are good stewards, and through the grade of PCI have continued to show improvement and why it works; but considering the level of funding, there will always be some level of backlog because roads continue to age; with a continued funded preventative maintenance plan they can control the backlog to ensure they do not fall into at-risk categories in the future; they are still battling with roads that are in the brown and red areas, which the Board can see compared to the total number of miles Road and Bridge has which is 1232 miles, is fairly small, but the most costly to fix, which needs to be spread out over time. He explained currently, by the chart, in 2017 versus today there are only 74 miles of backlog compared to 734 miles before the implemented program in 2018; District 5 has the most amount of roads that still need to be reconstructed; and though that has decreased significantly over time, it also started out as the worst District needing the most costly reconstruction in 2018. He mentioned they have continued to work down through each of the Districts, trying to spread the money where it is best needed and most needed; District 1 has the most roads overall in the County, District 2 has been challenging because it has the most amount of utilities, sewer plants, Save Our Indian River Lagoon (SORIL) Projects, other issues as Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) and FDOT projects, and waterline projects; and like many areas around the County, the area is booming, that presents challenges to the schedule, trying to finish reconstruction over the next five years, though it is out of our control, but the worst thing that could happen is if they go in and pave with Utilities coming in behind them, it would like to coordinate that, which could extend the 2030 timeframe, which is their best projection as of today. He stated the next item was the five-year strategic plan for bridges of which there are 48 County bridges; as part of this strategic plan, the chart shows a rolling five-year bridge plan updated annually and it shows the number of bridges that will be rehabbed and replaced as they look ahead, as well as the projected costs; there is a graph that shows what has been funded and unfunded, as it shows over that five-year period, a $8.5 million delta of things that they believe need major rehab or replacement versus the funding they have today; there is no funding mechanism other than taking it out of existing projects; the Districts MSTU budgets contribute approximately $500,000 a year towards minor bridge repairs, which is shown in the bottom chart in the green boxes, and the rest is made up from gas taxes; in 2023 and 2024 Bridge Projects were completed in District’s 1, 2, and 3, that included Micco Bridge, rehabilitation of James Clark Pedestrian Bridge, and the Sykes Creek Parkway Bridge rehabilitation; and they are now focused on required rehabilitation and replacements in District 2 and 4 to stay ahead of deterioration. He stated they are currently on Sea Ray Bridge which is under construction and fully-funded; the West Central Avenue Bridge also in District 2 is in design, or nearly completion of design, construction is not fully-funded; however, they sought State appropriations in the upcoming legislative session; and if not, the backup plan is to look at a combination of impact fees and gas taxes to try to bridge the gap, which is a continuing theme year-to-year unless they find additional funding.

  • Brevard County Board of County Commissioners — Minutes
• Item C.2.

  Parks and Recreation

  approved - Ian Golden, Parks and Recreation Director, stated he will try and be quick; and will give the Board a little bit of fast facts about the Department; as he goes through this, especially the last bullet, is really the significant one he wants the Board to take away from this is the sheer number of people they actually count who use the Parks and Recreation Facilities throughout the County; these are people who are registered through the internal programs through recreation partners and instructors, this does not count the two to three times this number that probably just drop in to the parks to use the playground, free time at the gym, or those types of things; Parks and Recreation is broken up into two functional areas, Parks and Recreation and Environmentally Endangered Lands (EELS); he will go over each one through the presentation; the Department funding budget of about $101 million, this will give the Board an idea where the funding is coming from; about $16.5 million is coming from General Fund, Special Revenue Funds he will get to on the next slide, and balance forward will have another slide just for that, charges for services/fees are from facility rentals, campgrounds, and those types of things; as they look at the funding sources in the Special Revenues, it is Municipal Service Taxation Unit (MSTU) which they try to break it up by District areas or, by north, central, south, and EELS; and EELS the Board will notice, is just bond and debt, the others is a mixture of some debts, MSTU, and Special Recreation Districts. He went on to say again, as they get into each area, he will talk about this in depth. He stated this slide is taking the Special Revenue Districts and showing in the balance forward what that is; the Board will see that the General Fund in the balance forward is a very small amount, that is a mixture used for some Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) in the north area, with a mixture of Special Revenue Funds; debt out of the $49 million is a little over $8 million, Bonds are a little over $7.5 million, MSTU is $5.5 million, and then Special Recreation District at $12.3 million; miscellaneous is actually interest, facility rentals, and some of the other things he mentioned; the next slide is giving the Board an idea of the expenses; and as a Department, the salaries and benefits is kind of a mixed green, because General Fund was about $16.5 million, salaries and benefits are $22.2 million, and it is a mixture of the General Revenue and some of the Special Revenue sources. He explained he wanted to break out the pink Operating Expenses, which is typically all rolled up with Contracted Service, Utilities, and all that is rolled up; he wants to give the Board an idea of what some of the breakout expenses are and how expensive it can actually be for the Department; repair and maintenance is $5.6 million; that is the normal where kind of things that break down it tries to fix them, that are not in the CIP, to keep the operations running, but this also includes when there is vandalism, which he has an example of in the north area from the past Monday, at Scottsmoor Landing where there were signs that were shot up, broke chains, tore down wooden poles for bonfires, and drove All- Terrain Vehicles (ATV) through the grounds themselves, so that is where repair and maintenance comes in; and they got a hold of Law Enforcement and talked to the Sheriff in that instance about increasing patrols, but that is something that occurs at a lot of the parks. He stated CIP is a large portion of the balance forward and Marc Bernath spoke to that already, so he is not going to this slide shows the Board an idea Department of staffing, with a total of 354 employees, 299 full-time, 55 part-time, and this includes a breakdown of who is Administrative, Recreation, and Maintenance; since the question came up, there is a 22 percent vacancy rate, it is supplemented under contractual services through a temp agency to fill in the holes, as they look at the turnover and address it; an example is last week where an electrician who was just hired, was not there very long, and left to go to the private sector making almost double what the County pays; and another example of the staffing broken out into other areas; and if he did not mention it, the North Area Parks Operations (NAPO), Central Area Park Operations (CAPO), and South Area Park Operations (SAPO); and as the Board can see, other than EELS and for the most part north Area, everything else is a mixture of General Fund, with the exception of north Area is Manatee Hammock Campground where they are kind of an Enterprise Fund where it supports itself; and EELS is supported by its Bond. He stated this will give the Board an idea of where Parks and Recreation are on the Debt Service for the referendums that have happened over the years; miscellaneous is typically interest; the statutory reduction is actually required by Statute; if the Board is interested it is 129.1, 1C, and is required to be set aside on everything but balance forward and transfers; slide 11 is a visual of where the debt is based on area; slide 12 is a brief look at what the Interlocal Agreements are with different agencies throughout the County; there is one with the School Board with an expiration in 2033, a breakdown of where those 10 facilities are by area, Titusville is in perpetuity, and then the City of Rockledge and the City of Cocoa; and he is going fast, but if there are questions, he is happy to stop and answer. He stated slide 13 is a little busy, but he is trying to give the Board an idea of where the CIP Projects have been; from 2017 to 2024 the number is based on a breakout of types of projects; they have also broken it out by different areas, and then how much was spent in each area for those items; because it stands out, the athletic field lighting north area, there were zero and zero expenditures, which has to do with the fact there was lighting put in place through the referendum; and so they focused on other priorities, but they did put a small dollar amount that went towards improving the remote light control where staff can actually address it remotely through the internet. Commissioner Delaney stated she recently got an inquiry about Holder Park and their lighting, which is up in the north, north, the great north. Mr. Golden asked what the inquiry was about. Commissioner Delaney replied the lighting, which they could talk about later. Mr. Golden replied he knows way further down there are some lighting projects in the five-year CIP for the north area, he is not sure if Holder was on it, but he will make a note. Chairman Feltner asked if the lighting is usually paid for, the costs of the actual lighting when there are evening events going on, and paid for by the different groups that are running the facilities. Mr. Golden answered yes, it is usually part of their agreements. Chairman Feltner responded okay, just so everybody knows. Commissioner Goodson asked if he was referring to the night that people rent the facilities they pay for the lights or if he was talking about installation. Chairman Feltner answered no, not the installation. Mr. Golden stated only the actual electricity used. Commissioner Goodson asked the actual what. Mr. Golden answered the actual electricity used. Commissioner Goodson asked for that night only, not the installation. Mr. Golden answered for that night only. Commissioner Goodson stated he just wanted to make sure. Mr. Golden asked if there were any other questions. Commissioner Delaney asked she had a question about the hurricane repair projects, this is a lot more than what they just… Mr. Golden replied this was only through 2024; and this is of the last seven years and not reflective of Milton. Commissioner Delaney expressed her appreciation to Mr. Golden. Mr. Golden stated since Mr. Bernath talked about the bathroom renovation project, he would not harp on it, but he is grateful to Facilities and the County Manager for moving this project forward because it is addressing things Parks and Recreation did not have the funding for; as the Board looks at this, Mr. Bernath touched on it, the use of Contractors is 38 percent cheaper to do it internally and takes half the time, and he is happy with that process; next is where those projects have been completed and the ones that are still underway; they are also working with Facilities to do a beach shower replacement project, since the ones they have in place are rusting and cracking, but the ones chosen actually will not have that but a longer life span, he provided a slide to give the Board an idea of where the new one will be in each District; he stated on Chart 18, it is giving a visual of the north area and what it encompasses, the municipalities, and other areas that are a part of that; and as he goes through the different areas, he will talk about the revenue, expenses, and staffing, kind of what was shown at the Department level, it is broken down each area, as well as the referendums background, and on their Capital Projects. He mentioned, starting with fast facts in the north area, this was not everything in the area, it is just some things to highlight for the Board; these numbers can be accounted for because of registration for a program, but not the people who drop into the gym, or those types of things, there is not a way to count that right now; he showed the Board another breakdown of the north areas funding and where it comes from; he noted seeing a balance forward is a large section, so he will show on another slide; the miscellaneous for the north area was mostly donations from Parrish Hospital going towards Blanton Park and Harry T. Moore Center; Intergovernmental is American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Funding; and then charges for services are primarily Manatee Hammock Campground. He continued by saying the next slide is where the north area’s expenses are broken out; again it shows a large portion of the funds goes to salaries and benefits; the Reserve number is required as the County is paying back the debt on the bonds that was put in place through the referendums, and it will be going down as it is used to pay off the referendums in the bonds; north area staffing breakdown shows it has 18 vacancies, eight in recreation, and ten in maintenance; he showed some of the referendums that were voted into place; first is a special recreation district voted on in 2000, and then in 2006 there was another referendum to add additional money; bonds will be paid off in 2026; and the Reserves will go away after 2026; and 2001 is when the MSTU was put in place and approved as part of that referendum. He mentioned some things that were done out of the referendum dollars were, the construction of Chain of Lakes, complete renovation of Marina Park, Sandpoint Park, and enhancing of existing parks; the next slide gives the Board an idea of what is actually being drawn through those two millages, the debt millage and operations millage; and an idea of the operating funds, that .8 is what was approved by the voters for up to .8, the County is currently at .1657, so that leaves, once the debt is retired, because it is combined right now to get to closer to .8, but once the debt is retired, the operating millage cannot be increased because it is above the line without impacting the aggregate. He stated Port St. John had a separate MSTU put in place through a referendum; the map shows a specific area that is encompassed; there is also a MSTU in place, it was paid off in 2016, however, in 2015, an Ordinance was put in place to continue the MSTU for this area; again some things done with those dollars and some idea of millage which has no debt because it was paid off, so it is just an MSTU, it shows where it is at versus what it could be; and it is fairly hard to hit the max without having to cut elsewhere. He stated up north there was referendum rejected by the voters in 2006, and he showed the Board just an idea of what was going to be done with those dollars; there is also a District 1 MSTU that includes the City of Titusville and unincorporated, and is addressed through the Interlocal Agreement that he previously discussed; the next slide indicates what that MSTU is generating; and all MSTU is, everything going towards operating, have the same issue if it is adjusted up because of the overall aggregate, because it is above the line. He stated here is an idea of where the north area has been with its capital; this slide shows from 2011 through 2025; most until 2017, 2018, it was those dollars that were from the north area funding sources such as the MSTU, Referendum until 2015, and then in 2018 it shows the inclusion of General Funds dollars, because there was a refocus by the County Manager to address some of those ongoing issues and concerns that Mr. Bernath talked about, though they have them also in Parks and Recreation, which he will share; Parks and Recreation does five-year planning; this is just a sample of what staff has in the five-year plan for north area; the actual total CIP for the area, like for 2026, this shows only $525,000, but there is over $4 million worth of items in that years CIP; 2030 shows $180,000, but is actually over $5 million in that years CIP plan; those five-year plans are like a rolling plan that are adjusted every year; as things get done, they fall off the plan as things are found that needs prioritized, they will move up potentially on the plan; at the same time, there are items that are unfunded, which are wish list items, things that come from the citizens, or from the facilities, as there is funding available the items may move off the unfunded into the CIP itself; and looking at the aging infrastructure looking even further out than the five-year plan to make sure they keep an eye on things that will be coming up because of the lifespans. He noted the next area is the central area, the numbers served through the programs from last Fiscal Year; the funding sources, balance forward, and earlier it was discussed about the $1.3 million of General Fund and balance forward as a Department, it is reflected here, and mixed with other funds to address the CIP projects; the expenses showing under salaries and benefits, a mixture of green and pink, because it is a mixture of funding sources for the staff in the area; central area staffing has 27 vacancies, six in recreation, and 21 in maintenance; he provided a visual of one of the referendums and the area it encompasses, where twice the voters approved it; he stated the first one in 2000 is where the MSTU was established; he showed the Board some things done with the referendum dollars; he advised there was another referendum that would have covered the central mainland area that was rejected by the voters; overall, the central areas budget is less than the other two areas for Parks and Recreation; there was an MSTU established in 2000 and he showed the Board where the dollars were brought in; the MSTU is for the Merritt Island area, and the referendum was approved by the voters, and he provided a slide showing the things that were done with the Recreation MSTU dollars. He mentioned also created through the legislature, is the County Special Recreation District 4, which used to include portions of District 4, but when the Commission Districts were redrawn, those parks in District 4 became part of Districts 1 and 2, because the legislature did this; the redrawing does not impact the boundaries of this Recreation District; and even though it says District 4, it has none of District 4 facilities in it. Chairman Feltner stated when he ran for office in 2006, all of Rockledge proper was in District 4; and now what is known as the City of Rockledge is not in District 4 at all. Mr. Golden stated this one is unique because the way it was set up, there is an advisory body made up of representation from the County, City of Cocoa, and the City of Rockledge, so the revenues from this area is actually generated from taxes over those two cities, as well as the unincorporated Brevard County; he provided a slide showing what the Recreation District generates through its millage and what has been approved; the next slide shows the facilities that are included in that Recreation District; the same idea as the slide from then north area, which is 2011 to current year; again, the Board is seeing the other funding sources and how low it is, and it can see the focus from the County Manager putting additional dollars in; in 2023, there were addition funding because of the hurricanes, Ian and Nicole, is why the blue is bigger; and one of the things, if the Board remembers from the previous north area that talked about the five-year CIP, the same idea, but the dollar amounts projected out into future years are not as high as the other two areas because those areas are not bringing in as much through the MSTU, so for the most part, between $825,000 to $875,000 a year is what they build a CIP for the central area for the five-years. He mentioned some unfunded items, aging infrastructure, and he noted, even Kiwanis Island Park was dedicated in 1968, and got some renovations in 2005; on to the south area, showing a map for a visual; some fast facts for this area and usage, and the funding, if the Board recalls central was about $18 million, in this area it is $37 million; and there is also less General Funding because more of it is covered through special revenue funds. Chairman Feltner stated to clarify there are three County Commission Districts in the south area. Mr. Golden answered yes, that is correct, the millage is also on a bigger tax base. He advised where their balance forward is, a large portion is going to debt, which is going away in 2026; he showed where funds are going and being expended; the south area employees with 26 vacancies, three administrative, which include superintendents, supervisors, area managers, and office staff; recreation has six vacancies and maintenance has 17; showing the South Brevard Recreation District and the area it encompasses, there is a carve out for the City of Malabar; again, two referendums were approved; the referendum bond amounts were much higher than the other areas, so that area could do more; at the same time the district bond was set up, an MSTU was set up for the Special Recreation District; he showed what that MSTU is bringing in on the operations and debt side; and to give the Board an idea, because of the amount of funding that goes into the south area, there is no General Fund that has gone to support the CIP over the years. He pointed out some examples from the area’s five-year plan, notating Viera’s Turf Replacement where there are only two of the six fields; the turf itself has usually a 10-year lifespan; speaking to the amount of CIP per year, 2026 it is $5.5 million, all the way to 2029 where it is at $2.5 million, and 2030 it is $2.6 million; the next slide gives the Board an idea from the last Fiscal Year of how the south area has a bit more funding, they are able to move some of the unfunded items to become part of the CIP and are being addressed current year, which is a luxury the other two areas do not have; and he provided the Board with some other examples of aging infrastructure. He stated EELS is a Countywide program broken up into the same three areas of north, central, and south, the maps show the acreage under EELs acreage under management and sites; EELs fast facts, one of the things that people may not be aware of, EELs actually does its own controlled burns for its properties, and have been nice in reaching out to Parks and Recreation side to help when it is needed; in addition, they create and maintain fire lines through-out their properties which is a great benefit to everyone who surrounds those properties; some other ideas in Land Management, for example, there are 49 miles of access and maintenance roads, they control for exotic species, not only plants but feral hogs, insects and those types of things; they do educational activities, special events like Earth Day, programs, guided hikes, and youth programs; the funding sources as shown has no General Fund, the breakdown of the balance forward, of which the vast majority of it is bonding, also no General Fund; he provided the expense breakdown where the vast majority of it is bonding; next is staffing which has six vacancies, one in administration, two in recreation, and three in maintenance; as for voter approved referendums, there have been three to date, and it is not wrong to say EELs has been overwhelmingly supported by the voters; he provided the dates and amounts that have been approved for up to bonding; and for the 2022, which the Board may hear about moving forward either this year or in the coming years, of the $50 million, $6.2 million has been bonded, which leaves $43.8 million available to bond. He mentioned some of the things that have been done with the referendum bond dollars is a lot of land acquisition, equipment purchases to maintain it, and the construction of different sanctuaries, such as Pine Island, which has Sam’s House, Enchanted Forest, and Barrier Island Center down south. Chairman Feltner asked to point out that the prior Board, before the three new Commissioners got here, did not want to go up to the $50 million bond it all out and spend it all before the next Board got here; and there is nothing to say the Board has to do that, it can be done several times, so this is an option left to the Board that will be heard about later. Mr. Golden stated one last thing on this slide is, if the Board members have not been to Pine Island, Sam’s House itself, it is actually the oldest standing home in Brevard County dating back to 1875; so he talked a little bit about land acquisition, it is actually a combination of those County dollars, as well as partnerships with the State and St. John’s River Water Management District (SJRWMD); of the 28,000 acres that has been acquired, here is the breakdown of that, 28,000 acres, more than 19,000 acres is actually under management by EELs; the idea of the operating and bond MSTU for those debt funds, some of the CIP; the Board will see there is no green, but they do have some things that are other colors, they made them sort of some of that special revenue because those were primarily donations; and for example, in 2012 and 2014 through 2017, there was an Air Force donation, 2018 to 2020 was an intergovernmental, and in 2025 that little tiny bit is interest. He stated again, they were looking further ahead at aging and infrastructure; a little bit about golf, he did not know if anyone on the Board knew that the County used to run three golf courses, Habitat Golf Course, Spessard Holland Golf Course, and Savannah’s; in 2015, and prior is when the County ran them, and in 2017 they went to a management company and kind of failed, then to a second management company, which did a little better, and then it went out to a group called Golf Brevard, Inc.; they have been doing a fantastic job maintaining the courses; Golf Brevard, Inc. took over in 2018 and it has been a very successful partnership; when it took over, there was about $490,000 in total was given to them, $390,000 was a loan, the other $100,000 was fees that the County had from the golf courses that was given to them to maintain and for the transition; they are required for the Habitat to do a lease payment because the Habitat is actually on land owned by Valkaria Airport; Frank Abbate, County Manager, mentioned earlier about the increasers, and there is an increaser on that lease payment that started back in 2018 to where they are currently; and again, based on feedback they have received, it appears that they are being maintained better than when the County did it. He mentioned these last few slides are an update of the Hurricane Milton dollars that were identified by the Board giving it an idea of where those projects are; there are several that are in progress; he is willing to give more details about these individual ones if the Board would like, he has that; he believes the second to the last slide show what projects have been completed; and the parenthesis under the dollar amount is the actual cost of the project to complete it versus what was actually estimated when the Agenda Item was brought before the Board. Chairman Feltner stated to Mr. Golden that he was a miracle worker; anyways well done; and that is his opinion. Commissioner Delaney asked when he talked about the vacancy for EELs, he had one in administration, but what was the second thing that he said. Mr. Golden replied one in administration, two in recreation, and three in maintenance. Commissioner Goodson asked on Merritt Island, when they impose their own taxes for the Recreation Tax, does that affect the budget that it gets up and beyond that; and since they are taxing themselves at about $2.7 million, do they get funding from the County that increases their benefit. Mr. Abbate responded he will take the hit on that question; He explained the answer is the County uses the General Fund monies in Parks and Recreation to fund what is most needed; the funds, after looking at the slides, they have not been equally distributed to the Districts; as a matter of fact, the south District gets virtually none; as the Board can see, there is no dollars, even in the Capital Programs because they did tax themselves at a very high rate; their facilities, for a number of years, have been able to be better maintained because of the additional funding that was available; this General Fund that is used in all the Districts, but all the dollars, like from the MSTU, and it is the same for Road and Bridge, every District has its own MSTU but still get General Fund dollars; and it is not equally, and has not historically been equally, so that is the true answer. Chairman Feltner stated Mr. Golden did a fine job; he asked for any other questions; and he called the next presenter.

  • Brevard County Board of County Commissioners — Minutes
• Item C.3.

  North Brevard Economic Development Zone

  approved - Troy Post of the North Brevard Economic Development Zone (NBEDZ) stated NBEDZ is a special dependent district that exists in the northern part of Brevard County, and as a dependent district, it has accountability to the County Commission along with the City Council in Titusville, both jurisdictions came together to form the Zone; it functions as an economic development organization which does a lot of the activities that an economic development organization does, trying to work with existing businesses in the area, and help them expand and attract new investment into the area; the primary reason for coming into existence was to provide financial grants that could help drive capital investment in the north end of the County; the reason for their creation was, in 2011 there was a dire economic state at that point for the County; not only was the great recession affecting the country, but of course, the County had the losses due to the ending of the Shuttle Program, so the political leadership at the time thought North Brevard needed a tool that could provide grants that would induce businesses to expand and create jobs; and there was a longer term mission as well that was to make the area a little more economically diverse because the north end is still pretty heavily wedded to aerospace and aviation- related industries. He stated on this slide it shows some of the distress criteria to remind the Board how things were, high unemployment, in fact it was double-digit for the City of Titusville that is an annual unemployment rate, high foreclosure rates, and the Milken Institute, which is a think-tank that monitors the Top 200 metro areas; at the time, the City of Titusville was ranked 177 out of 200, so not very good; the good news is things have improved in the last few years, Titusville has actually been in the Top 10 in that ranking; however, there is still much to do to make the area more economically diverse; as a special district, they have to define the area which would be using the resources allocated to them; and again, this will be pink money discussion, so the money has to be used for specific purposes within the district. He added it is mostly District 1 Commission Seat; it is a little section of Commission District 2 over on Merritt Island, that includes basically, everything west of the Lagoon from the beach line and Cocoa City limits, north to the Volusia County line, and it does include the Kennedy Space Center, north; that area just outside Kennedy is Exploration Park, which is the Space Florida Initiative where they are trying to develop it as a business park; and in terms of governance, they have a District Board, the County Attorney who attends those meetings of the District Board, and it meets once a month. He mentioned part of being a Special District means the Commission and the Counsel have a role in appointing the members of that District Board, which meets once a month, serve for four-year terms, and they can be reappointed, but they do serve without compensation; the Zone board has another role to play for the Commission; in 2013, the Commission decided to give the Zone board the responsibility of being the governing body for the Spaceport Commerce Park; this is a development the County created in the early 1980’s, acquiring about 300 acres of land and developing it into an industrial park; since 2013, the Zone’s responsibility is to negotiate projects and bring real estate contracts to the Commission to actually vote up or down, and there is one of those on the Agenda for next Tuesday for them to consider; to fund the agency what the City and County did was to create two Tax Increment Financing Districts; and the way in which that mechanism works for the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is they benefit from an increase in the property values that take place in the commercial and industrial property in the district. He stated if there is an increase in the valuation, the Zone gets an increment for that; they do not get an increment for an increase in residential valuation, it is strictly commercial and industrial, and it is only for the northern part of the County, the district boundary map that was shown, not for the entire County; the valuation is not set by the Zone board, that is done by the separate Constitutional Office, which is the Property Appraiser’s Office; each year around summertime they set that valuation and provide those figures to the budget office, and that is where they get the revenue allotment; in terms of revenue allotment or the allocation assigned to them, as shown on the slide, there is a revenue allotment of $14.7 million, which includes a balance forward; and on the pie chart it shows the pink money, which is reserved only for specific purposes. He shared the County TIF for the current year has an allotment of $3.3 million approximately, and the City TIF has an allotment of $800,000; they do then have the balance forward amount of $10.6 million; on the left-hand side of the screen, there is a breakdown of how that is composed; there is about $6.6 million in the County TIF carried forward into the current year, and $3.1 million in City TIF being carried over into the current year; the last item is for the Commerce Park of just under $900,000 being carried forward into the current year; and this amount represents the proceeds from the sale of that property that goes into the restricted account. He noted per the Ordinance that was passed in 2013, they can only use those monies for expenses related to the Park, so things like landscaping, signage, exterior lighting, and those kinds of things can be covered; but the bulk of those funds are used as a reserve so they can purchase property back if something does not go the way it is supposed to be when doing the development deals; and all the Deeds when they do a land sell in the Park, there is a provision that says within a certain period of time, generally two or three years, the business that is purchasing the lot has to develop the land; and that is defined as clearing the site, getting building permits, and actually putting a pad in. He stated if they cannot do that within that period of time, the Zone has the ability to buy the land back; the reason is, so that someone does not buy the land and hold it and realize some kind of gain on real estate speculation; there has to be money available to buy those properties back at the same price they sold it to them for if that is the trigger that is reached; and that is why that amount is carried forward. He stated here is a look at the Budget Expenditures; obviously, the largest thing they do, according to the chart are the grants and Aid Program, which has a Reserve balance shown; on the right there is also operating expenses, capital outlay, and compensation and benefits; they have a staff of three on the NBEDZ; capital outlay is generally related to improvements in the Industrial Park; this year they are doing monument signs on some of the landscape medians in the Park; this is a deeper dive into the operating expenses as the Board sees; major categories of contracted services, professional services, and of course, indirect costs, which figure is what is assigned to them under the County’s Cost Allocation Plan; in terms of contracted services and professional services, they have vendors they have used throughout the year to do different things like land surveys when they do lot sales, environmental reviews of some of the property in the area, and they could work with different consultants that help with market valuation of the lots, different things of that sort; and the main thing for the Zone board is the grant program. He stated just to give the Board an idea, the Zone has worked over the years on many different projects, but they are currently tracking these 19 projects for which funds have been committed, and if the companies do what they are supposed to do, the second column total at the bottom, with an amount of $13.4 million, is what the Zone is obligated to provide if they do what they are supposed to; now the thing he wants to emphasize is when they do the grant projects no money is provided upfront, everything is conditioned upon the project reaching some point of completion; at that point, there is a disbursement; sometimes in a project there are actually points towards completion to get to different installments made as the project is progressing where the company qualifies for the grant; and no money is given upfront. He advised the third column is the remaining disbursements on these projects that are listed, that is a $7.6 million figure, of which the Zone is contractually committed to provide that if company reaches the point of completion; and the point of completion sometimes can be completion of a building, getting a Certificate of Occupancy (CO), occupying for a period of time, or job creation. He stated the recent deal with the Lockheed Project is going to be tied to jobs, to create jobs, evidence they can hold it at the project side before they will qualify for the grant installments; the very last column is the Fiscal Year the Zone thinks would be likely they would pay out the rest of those grants, assuming the companies do what they say they are going to do; it is very likely the commitment made in the current year they may not pay out the grant until the next fiscal year or year after that; for that reason, that tends to see them carry forward those larger amounts from year to year; all grants are approved in accordance with a strategic plan; as part of being a special district, there had to be a plan that was approved by the Commission and City Council, which they did in 2012; and they have had a couple planning sessions in the intervening years where they considered amendments to the plan, but so far nothing was produced to bring before the Commission for its approval. He stated they are still working with the 2012 plan which is available on the NBEDZ website for all to see; basically, the programs fall into these three program areas, Small Business Assistance, Redevelopment of Existing Commercial and Industrial space, high wage job creation, which is how they were able to work on the Blue Origin Project, One Web Project, and of course, the Lockheed Project; they also have in this plan the strategic initiatives they can pursue; and these are for both physical and nonphysical infrastructure, so more than just helping with the installation of utility lines, it could be for entrepreneurial development and doing workforce development activities as well. Commissioner Delaney asked if the Zone board was going to be doing some kind of business, something soon, and is he able to talk about it. Mr. Post replied they are talking to the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) office about putting on a small business workshop up in the north end to help entrepreneurs, that is something they can do; again, things that are projects within the district are eligible for their expense or activities that help them advance commerce in the north end of the district are eligible to participate in and support; and so they hope to support that workshop. He stated the Zone has what he calls Program Tenets, the first he has already alluded to, but is worth repeating, the grants are what is called performance grants, which are based on a company reaching a level of completion for projects that have a value of the incentive that is more than half a million, even if it comes from the City TIF fund, it still requires Commission approval; the Zone has a project similar to that coming out in the next few months to see if the County Commission wants to approve something the City of Titusville is considering doing with some of the City TIF money, grants based on performance; the other tenet they have is searching for a rate of return that is five to one or greater, that is for every $1.00 of Zone money being injected into a project, they want to see $5.00 or more of other sources of financing coming in; the reason they insist on that is they do not want the Zone dollars being seen as a substitute for owners’ equity or capital going into the project; and the developer or business owner must be at risk if they are participating in this projects. He mentioned the last thing is the justification that Zone dollars are warranted in these projects, because there are some projects do not need incentive; they may be too far along and may be clearly evident that they do not need any assistance from the Zone; generally, where the Zone comes in is there is an application process which will identify what is a barrier, hindrance or road block to implementing the project they want to put together; and with that information they can see if it is possible that it fits into one of the program areas where they can help bring the project about. He shared there are a few projects he can go through quickly, but will mention from the second photo, Pharmco, was a building built by Embraer who had purchased a company out of California that did their seat manufacturing, they wanted to develop another campus in the north end of the County similar to the one in Melbourne; they brought the company in after they received an incentive from NBEDZ where they were helping them offset the cost of construction and working the site, which was about 15 acres that they were grading; after a few years, they realized the efficiencies were not there, and being a good corporate neighbor, they were willing to work with the Zone; it did trigger a clawback in the incentive agreement; an important thing they try to put in all the agreements are ways to recapture money that has been provided to them through the grants if they do not following through in subsequent years with the scope of the project described within the grant agreement; and they did return the funds to the Zone, which was $1.5 million, and was left with a building that became a good fit for Pharmco Labs, which was expanding. He stated the Zone also does redevelopment projects like Titus Landing, which used to be the Miracle City Mall Project; the bottom photo is a small business owner who has a little restaurant in Titusville who wanted to go to the other end of the building he was in and put together a small-scale grocery for the neighborhood; it was a small business, but it underscores it does not just work with the Blue Origin’s and Lockheed’s of the world, but work also with a lot of small businesses of which they are trying to assist per the economic development plan; the Strategic Initiatives they have are also some infrastructure projects; the middle photo is from a project they are working on with Eastern Florida State, which involves their Aviation College, which is building a new facility at the Titusville campus; the Zone served as a local match so that they could obtain State funding to build that building; and with that, he asked if the Board had any questions. Commissioner Adkinson stated he gave some data about when NBEDZ was originally created that unemployment was bad and foreclosures were bad; and she asked what that data is currently. Mr. Post answered he does have that information; from the NBEDZ Newsletter that just went out yesterday and on that, the count as of December 2024 the most recent he has, the County unemployment rate was 3.2 percent, the labor force size for the County was 301,000, and for Titusville it was a 3.2 percent unemployment rate with a labor force of 22,398. Commissioner Adkinson asked since she does not remember the initial numbers, is that a significant improvement. Mr. Post replied absolutely, the 2011 statistic was around 12 percent; the size of the labor force has grown, so certainly, the unemployment rate has dropped; they continue to benefit from the defense sector companies in the area and aerospace companies; they are interested now in developing further are other industry sectors boating and pharmaceuticals, like Pharmco, and other things, so that the County is not so dependent on just a few sectors for the economic well-being. Commissioner Adkinson noted so the original reason for NBEDZ was the economic distress that was happening in the north end, and it sounds like it has done its job and has created, or helped to create, the thriving community that is happening there. Mr. Post answered they have fulfilled that part of their mission, but the longer term mission, which he did not highlight on the spreadsheet, but it talked about the Sunset Provision, which when it was created they were given a 31-year lifespan so they would sunset in 2042; the purpose of that was to lay the groundwork for a more diverse industry, so doing what they can to go after the manufacturers of boating and pharmaceuticals; and they recognized that it would take a while to get there because of the workforce needed to do the variety of tasks, and the challenges of developing sites that would be able to accommodate those kind of users as well. Commissioner Adkinson asked where the $3.3 million of monies comes from. Mr. Post replied it is generated from the appreciation of property values above the base year and it gets a portion of that appreciation of ad valorum tax or the General Fund. Chairman Feltner stated they are at a decision-point and wanted to get it out of the way whether to continue or not; someone wants to be done at 5:00 p.m. and someone may want to push through; and he asked what the pleasure of the Board is. Commissioner Goodson asked what topics are left. Chairman Feltner answered they have Tourism, Planning and Development and Merritt Island Redevelopment Agency (MIRA). Commissioner Goodson asked if he thought that was possibly another four hours. Chairman Feltner replied he was looking at the number of slides, Ian had more slides than all these put together; so maybe finish after Peter Cranis and he asked if Mr. Cranis would be a half hour. Mr. Cranis stated he would be five minutes Chairman Feltner answered ok, they will revisit decision after Tourism.

  • Brevard County Board of County Commissioners — Minutes
• Item C.4.

  Tourism Development

  approved - Peter Cranis, Tourism Director, stated Tourism is pink money which comes from the Tourist Development Tax (TDT) which is the five percent tax from overnight lodging such as hotel/motel and short-term rentals; the Tourist Development Council (TDC) acts as the advisory board to the County Commission, so the Board can see how that breaks out; a number of sub-committees like The Beach and Marketing sub-committees are the active ones, the others are not going to be active this year; the tourist collections pay for everything from promotions and Marketing that is one half the budget, Beach Re-Nourishment is 25 percent, Capital Projects, Art and Cultural Programs, Brevard Zoo, and the Stadium; a historical look at the collections over the years, 10 years ago they were just under $13 million; in 2019 it cracked $16 million; in the last few years have broken through the $25 million barrier; and the budget this year is $27 million; they are doing well; but they have some big month’s ahead, the TDC will see how it does this year. He commented this is the chart from the Marketing Support Program Workshop where they went through the TDT allocation; as a reminder the first two pennies, 25 percent goes to marketing, 30 percent goes to Beach, and Capital and Cultural are up to 35 percent and 10 percent, so those are a more flexible; and then all the rest of the pennies are defined as is, a little less than one-half the budget is marketing, and the rest falls out from there. He mentioned the Budget for this year looks like a little over $55 million, it is higher than the tax collection because of the carry forward, some funds are in Reserves, and Capital Funds they are holding for various projects; it is a little more than what it collects and they reserve those for other projects coming forward; a little bit about the Beach Fund, it is 25 percent of the Budget; a big project going on this year for about $52 million project, which is in the Mid-Reach and South-Reach Beaches, from south of Patrick down to Spessard Holland; the TDC was fortunate that due to the storm damage to those beaches, they got the Army Corp of Engineers to pony up and they are basically covering the full project; normally they would pay in the range of 10 to 15 percent so, that saved the TDC a little bit of money; and then in the South Beaches, they are 100 percent responsible for the South Beaches, and were hit a couple years ago by Hurricane Ian and a few other storms. He mentioned it resulted in $25 million having to come from the beach budget, well $25 million total project cost, but $18 million came out of the Beach Budget, which wiped out the budget for that year, and they ended up borrowing the other $7 million; the good news is, they will be getting money back from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), about 87.5 percent from FEMA; they expect a little bit from the State of Florida, so hopefully getting back about 90 percent of those funds, though it takes typically three to four years; over the last two years they have built the Reserves back a little bit; as the Board can see, one project can wipe it out, but there is about $8.85 million in Reserves; and sand has gone up in the last nine years about eight percent a year, so they are paying more for re-nourishment than they have before. Commissioner Delaney asked if the beach restoration is the dunes or the whole beach. Mr. Cranis answered it is the whole beach, the sand placement is to refurbish the beach part, but the dunes then have to be built up because it is the final barrier to the storms; and it is usually a lot of planting, which is what holds it all together. Commissioner Delaney asked what about the rock that is on the beach. Mr. Cranis replied in the mid-reach there has to be some mitigation there because the rock cannot be covered, the County is not allowed; however, in the past, and he is not the beach expert, Mike McGarry, Boating and Waterways Program Manager, who runs the Beach Program is; but what they have done in the past is built some artificial reef that has been pretty successful at attracting fish, turtles, and a lot of wildlife which has been a little help for some of the rock that does get covered, a kind of mitigating; and he reiterated they are not allowed to cover the rock. Commissioner Delaney asked if there was a percentage of rock allowed to be covered. Mr. Cranis answered there is a percentage but he was not sure what it was; it can be a little; but it is Federally protected. Commissioner Delaney asked about mitigation for the turtles and the laying of eggs. Mr. Cranis responded that part of the Beach Fund pays for turtle monitoring, and a big part is making sure they do not negatively impact the turtles; what he has seen over the past five to 10 years has been unbelievable growth in the number of turtle nesting that is being seen; Brevard County is one of the largest turtle nesting sites in North America, and TDC promotes that heavily in their marketing; and it is important that they keep the turtles coming, they have really grown a lot. Commissioner Delaney asked if there are statistics Mr. Cranis could get together to show the Board the increase in turtle nesting. Mr. Cranis replied yes, they use several turtle monitoring organizations like University of Central Florida (UCF) and a couple others who track all that every year, so they can provide statistics on how much that has grown. Chairman Feltner stated Natural Resource Management would also have that information; and the County does not do re-nourishment during Turtle Season. Mr. Cranis advised that is right, they have to be off of the beach by the end of March when the height of the season begins. Chairman Feltner stated he just wanted that for a point of clarification. Mr. Cranis stated a little bit about the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) Grant Program, it was started back in 2019, but 2021-22 was when they actually allocated the full $1 million for a lot of different projects; smaller projects do not have to be matched, only a project over $50,000 must have a .75:1 match, which the Board determined a few years ago; typically, the $1 million is committed annually but because of the damage done to the South Beaches and the money spent out of the budget, they did not; with Board direction, they have the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) Program Grant for 2024 or 2025; but a recurring $157,000 per year was awarded to Keep Brevard Beautiful (KBB) for five years to clean the causeways, which comes out of the $1 million every year; then $150,000 one time was allocated for derelict vessel removal for 2025; and they will probably carry over some of the funds into next year because they will not be able to use all the funds this year. Commissioner Delaney asked how many boats does that cover. Mr. Cranis answered it varies because Matt Culver, Boating and Waterways Program Coordinator, who is retiring, has managed that program for a number of years, so typically, he can get out 10 to 20 boats a year; however, it is a laborious process that takes a long time to get approval to be able to move the boats; and this year with the $150,000, they will use less than half of the money and then will use the rest next year. Chairman Feltner stated he thought there was State Grant for that also. Mr. Cranis replied he believes there is some State funding as well, he does not remember the amount of that, but there is some State funding. Frank Abbate, County Manager, advised he believes there will be some legislation that hopefully will make it easier to remove derelict vessels than what is currently allowed. Mr. Cranis stated this is a fun topic, Lifeguard funding; this year it was a $3.742 million program, of that about $1.566 million was paid for out of the TDT; the Board can see the breakdown is about $556,000 out of Marketing, $710,000 out of Capital, and $300,000 out of Cultural; looking at next year’s Budget, a lot of the Capital and Cultural funds have been spent down, so if the TDC were asked to do a similar amount for next year then probably a little bit more will have to come from Marketing, which obviously could impact them a little bit, so just food for thought; as far as Capital Projects, there were a number of Capital Projects underway that were recently funded or funds are being held for; the largest capital award in the history of the program is the Aquarium, there is $15 million allocated, which will break ground this summer, and be $1.5 million per year for 10 years, so this is the first year it would be paid out; the Canaveral Lighthouse was awarded last year which should be finished this year; and the Brightline Station was awarded $5 million, those funds are being held to see if they can get some Federal funding to finish or begin that project. He stated the Veteran’s Memorial Park Amphitheater has been awarded a little over $2.5 million, which is well underway, but should have a little carry over next year as they are just starting now; the Police Hall of Fame Project was awarded $5.7 million, $5 million of that was awarded last year, or two years ago, which has a payout of $1 million per year for five years through 2028; Palm Bay Sacrifice Park received $250,000 and should finish this year; they are finishing that and doing a ribbon cutting ceremony; back in 2018 or 2019, the TDC spent $5 million building the AstroTurf Fields in Viera, which was a 10-year loan, so that is up through 2029; looking at the chart, the big numbers at the top is for the Revenue, so for 2024-2025, it is just under $12 million; the Board can see all the projects that makes up the expense side of the $12 million; and the Board can see this year there are no available funds remaining after they awarded $710,000 for the Lifeguards, and there is $2 million in Reserves, so the next year or two is low, but will start building up around 2029 or 2030. He mentioned the United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) operates the stadium under a 30-year Contract, which has to generate 100,000 room nights annually; last year the USSSA did a little over 95,000, and got hit with a penalty, but still spent a lot on stadium repair projects; if they are capital-type projects, they get reimbursed, and were reimbursed last year for $443,000, which came out of the Stadium Repair Fund; they are required to contribute $250,000 to that fund annually and they are required to spend $250,000 on Capital Maintenance annually; the Ordinance requires the County hold $350,000 in a Capital Maintenance account on an annual basis, that comes from the fourth penny; TDC also talked a lot about the Marketing Support Program (MSP) this year, and thanks to the Board, they moved forward on this; this was $840,000 funded between the Cultural Fund and some of the Marketing Fund; 44 events were awarded, $805,000 this year, they are in the process of contracting with different events; some of the events that already happened will get reimbursements; and some events will get Marketing support, as well, so they can choose what they prefer either Marketing help or event reimbursement. He stated they will probably bring back to the TDC, and then to the Board next year’s program, make some recommendations for tweaking it, but it will probably be a similar program for next year; then the Marketing Plan, recommended every year by the Marketing Committee and the TDC, and then the Board approves it every year as directed by the State Statute and County Ordinance; the last couple years District 2, Cocoa Beach, has received about 50 percent of the Budget, then the remaining Districts will split the remaining 50 percent; that was an Agreement with the Cocoa Beach Hotel Association; in the Plan they use the Florida Space Coast as the umbrella, but then they highlight everything from beaches, to space, to the different amenities in the County, and then they highlight the municipalities as well; they use a mix of media from billboards, to digital, to TV streaming, all kinds of different types of media, they also their own media outlets, like the Facebook page which gets millions of views; a Launch App gets a quarter of a million downloads; and a website gets millions of views, and they have a lot of tools at their disposal as well, heavily leveraging public relations, which is important to them. He mentioned to show the Board just a couple of creative things to see, this is from District 1, some Digital Ads, some of the billboards Cocoa Beach is running right now from Kelly Slater, Surfing Legend, for Space and highlighting the beaches, Melbourne billboards with turtles, and Palm Bay highlights nature and fishing; TDC looked at the top source markets to target marketing with Cellular Data Tool that helps them understand where people are coming from, which is heavily the State of Florida, but about close to 60 percent of the audience comes from the outside of Florida, so it targets a lot of those main cities; people ask what if they had more Marketing dollars, he would probably go deeper into the list and try to reach people that are coming here already and try to find more people like them; and the highlighted areas are where it does market, but still many areas they could market to in the future. Chairman Feltner noted as Chair of the TDC and having worked in Tourism in this market for a long time, the Florida folks that come here go to the parks when their kids are out of school, and the visitors do the vice versa and come to the beaches, so that is a lot of the traffic; and he asked if that is the summertime market. Mr. Cranis replied it is heavy, and obviously, Orlando generates about 75 million visitors a year, so they try to get a share of those for at least a couple of nights. Chairman Feltner stated the County prefers that when the visitors are going on State Road (SR) 528 they do not go left to Volusia County; and that is Brevard County Tourisms whole job. Mr. Cranis stated a little how the TDC breaks out the campaign, it has an annual campaign that runs all year long with billboards, airport signage, they do a lot digitally on Google search words and social media; there are seasonal campaigns that focus on each season, so they just finished the Fall/Winter Campaign; TDT just came out yesterday and said January was the best in TDC history, which was a big focus for them of increasing that winter traffic; they feel it was very successful with those results; being in February they just started the Spring Campaign, and now they are getting into the heart of Spring, they are hopeful it will be a really good season, it is late Easter this year, which should help; and of course the biggest spend is Summer, which is the biggest season in June, July, and August, so they will start marketing in May for that. He stated that he wanted to finish up some other things TDC does; one of the big things is the Public Relations Initiatives, which is where it gets a lot of big media hits on different things; they were named by Conde Nast as one of the Top 25 places to go in the world in 2025; Brevard County was one of only two destinations to get that designation that generated a lot of media coverage for Brevard County, over eight billion in media impressions throughout the year; if the County had to go out and buy that media coverage, it would cost tens of millions of dollars, obviously way more than what the budget would be, so Public Relations (PR) is a really great way to expand the marketing efforts; and then there are things going on like Film Commission, Sports Commission, and lots of other fun things TDC does. He stated a little bit about the future on the final slide; there are about a dozen projects on the Pipeline Report over the next few years; about another 3,000 hotel rooms, right now there are 11,000 rooms in the County, so it would make it 14,000; the Port has added a lot of new ships, which will home port 16 ships this year, including four new ships that are part of that; the Airport has done a good job of bringing in some other airline service like Touristik Union International (TUI) as a new partner, the last couple of years the TDC has been working closely with them to market in the United Kingdom (UK), Allegiant, Sun Country, and also other domestic airlines to partner with; from a launch perspective, that helps as well, people want to come and watch a launch, and they hope there will be a day when there is a launch every day of the year, but for now there was 93 last year, they think they will break 100 this year, which is good for TDC; and they have had a couple of really strong fiscal results, and looking ahead, hopefully over the next couple of years, if they hit the 30 million mark, then the State allows the TDC to add a sixth penny, which would add about $6 million to the budget that can go to various other Cultural, Capital, Beach, Marketing, and all of those things. Chairman Feltner asked if when Mr. Cranis says the State would allow the County that means a voter referendum. Mr. Cranis answered yes, the State just changed the law, so it is no longer a vote by the County, it has to be a public referendum. Chairman Feltner explained all of the other pennies are passed by referendum, just so everyone knows. Mr. Cranis stated there are a lot of major projects coming along, The Westin Cocoa Beach is a 500 room, four-star property, it will be the County’s first four-star; he is waiting to hear, but he thinks Margaritaville will start construction again in Melbourne; the Westgate Pier is building a pretty nice sized property there; part of the Westin is a Convention Center; of course, there is the Aquarium and Brightline Station, so there are a lot of things happening in the tourism world; and he thinks the County is on a very good, upward trajectory. Chairman Feltner asked if the Board has any questions. Commissioner Altman stated he knows the beaches are very critical to the Tourism Industry; he recently heard a report on one of the media outlets about the most dangerous beaches in all of America, one of the organizations listed all 10 of the most dangerous beaches in the United States were in Florida; of course, that outlet was in Texas, and they are fighting for launches, beach access, and tourism, they are the County’s foe, so he questions the objectivity; in their particular report, he thinks New Smyrna was number one, Daytona was number two, Miami Beach was number three, and Cocoa Beach was number four; the value of funding the Lifeguards and keeping an eye out for sharks really hurts the Tourism promotion; he asked if the County doing anything to respond to that threat, to respond to that type of negative exposure. Mr. Cranis answered not directly, per se; obviously, TDC marketing and promotion highlights the positive side of what the County has to offer; that has always been his belief, focusing on the positive and not trying to combat the negative and the media, because that battle cannot be won; and he thinks to the degree that the County has Lifeguards on its beaches, great programs, and great beaches, so that is the answer to that ultimately, and the positive will always outweigh the negative. Commissioner Altman pointed out even the Texas article did mention in Cocoa Beach, good news bad news, there were 26 shark attacks, and none of them were fatal. Mr. Cranis stated a lot of people with injured feet, legs and things like that. Commissioner Altman stated Destin has had a nightmare, they have had some bad bad attacks. Mr. Cranis stated it is something to keep an eye on and stay ahead of, but just to keep pushing the positive aspects then the things like the Conde Nast and those types of relationships of where the County is featured and highlighted, even with Global coverage like that, he feels that overshadows some of that. Commissioner Altman expressed his appreciation to Mr. Cranis for what he does; the County has a great TDC, he knows the Chairman is involved; he was lucky enough to start the TDC in his last cycle in the Commission, and Tom Wasdin was very involved; and they have come a long way, it is very sophisticated, and very well done. Chairman Feltner stated he wanted to say something about lifeguards real quick and he thinks Commissioner Goodson is reaching for his microphone. Commissioner Goodson stated Commissioner Altman, prior to your election, the Board had Cocoa Beach come before the Commission and said they did not care about tourists, they were not going to put a penny in lifeguards; but just recently they did put a news blast out saying they are going after the Airbnb’s and raise more money for them; so this year when the Lifeguards come up, he is sure it is going to be a fight again; and it is interesting that everyone wants the tourist dollars, but does not want to help pay the expenses to get them there. Commissioner Altman stated he lived through that fight in Tallahassee, and Commissioner Goodson may have been there; there was a Bill that allowed for the local TDC in the Panhandle, Fort Walton, to pay for lifeguards; he was under the impression it was not legal to use the TDC dollars for lifeguards; Morris Richardson, County Attorney, may have a difference of opinion; and that is why it required an act of the Legislature to that at Fort Walton. Commissioner Goodson commented that was kind of a two-fold situation. Attorney Richardson explained it is a bit of a misnomer because honestly, what that Statute did was allow for those Counties to use Tourism Taxes for police and Emergency Medical Services (EMS); there is a statutory definition for EMS that does not include the lifeguard function, so what was authorized to them is not authorizing lifeguards; his position has been, there was a 1990 he wants to say Attorney General Opinion (AGO) years ago, that says one cannot use the equivalent under the Statute of what Brevard calls the Beach Fund to fund lifeguards; that makes absolute sense because that Statute is very clear that it is for things like Capital Projects on beaches, nourishment, things like that, not lifeguard kind of services; since that opinion came out, the Legislature did change the Statutes to say that dollars can be used from what Brevard calls the Marketing Fund to pay for any service that has, as one of its primary purposes the attraction of tourists as evidenced by the promotion of that service to tourist, so the Board adopted a very lengthy Resolution with a lot of findings, that one of the primary services of providing lifeguards on the beaches is the attraction of tourists; and Mr. Cranis has been promoting lifeguards to tourists, there are billboard campaigns with lifeguards, and also promote lifeguard locations on Tourism Websites, things of that nature; and based on those things, it is his opinion that the TDC can use under that provision TDT to fund lifeguards. He stated at the request of the TDC, the Board just prior to Commissioner Altman’s election, gave the County Attorney direction to request an AGO regarding that use still in process, he will seek it soon; frankly, there has not been a lot of urgency; he does not know if the Board has noticed, but over the last five years the Attorney General is issuing three a year, he does not have a lot of hope, he will submit it, but needs to be thoroughly and properly done to help them get to the right conclusion about the County’s particular use of that TDT, so he will be sent off, that the position is certainly well-founded; and regardless of what the Attorney General says, all of the AGO’s on Tourism Development Tax use have always said that while they can provide some advisory opinions, it is always ultimately up to the County Board to make that determination, those findings, whether it is a proper use or not. Commissioner Altman stated he wondered if the lifeguards were required to be Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) if that would open up a door to providing EMT services. Attorney Richardson answered it is only in those counties that they can use it for the EMT services, so that might actually cut against the County; and he thinks lifeguard services are unique. Commissioner Altman stated it is a fascinating issue. Commissioner Atkinson stated she has lived in Brevard County her whole life, she has lived on the beach her whole life, the beaches are always packed; and she asked if there is data that shows that having lifeguards increases the tourists that come to those beaches. Mr. Cranis answered he has never seen anything have that direct line correlation. Attorney Richardson stated what they do have finding on, he will say on the record, is that Mr. Cranis has done survey data of visitors here and what kind of amenities draw them to certain beaches. Mr. Cranis interjected saying lifeguards are at the top of that list. Chairman Feltner stated the prior Board got here, it was a little contentious at that time, and he was the deciding vote, if he remembers, so he will own it; there were drownings and some people attribute that to rip currents, a lot of rip currents, and some have suggested after the beach renourishment is done maybe there will not be rip currents, but he does not know if that is true; he is not an oceanographer, but the Board was contacted by the public saying this is bad press, it does not sound good, the Board needs to do something, so it was looking at spending County dollars to increase lifeguard services; and it looked to Tourism to help pay for lifeguards. He advised he wanted to clarify something, up until that point, Brevard County property owners paid 100 percent of the lifeguard cost; TDT was not paying for lifeguards, tourists are not property owners, they do not pay property tax; that is how the County got there, it was responding to a problem; and he does not know what this Board is ultimately going to decide or how that works, but it will see going forward. Commissioner Altman stated to Commissioner Adkinson he just noticed in the study that Melbourne Beach was the ninth most dangerous, but he does not believe it. Commissioner Adkinson asked what the reasons for being so dangerous were. Commissioner Altman replied there have been 19 recorded shark attacks; most of the shark attacks were surfing-related; and it says to be careful out there. Commissioner Adkinson stated her son surfs, she has gone swimming a lot, and she has seen a shark every single time because that is where she lives, she lives by the ocean where the sharks live. Commissioner Altman noted she swims with sharks and now she is a County Commissioner, so she works with the sharks. Commissioner Delaney pointed out that Commissioner Adkinson has all her legs. Chairman Feltner stated for people who lived here a long time, he or she knows where the rocks are, knows the beaches, and it only takes one time to figure out where the rocks are; he asked if there were any other comments for Mr. Cranis; he stated well done, it is 5:00 p.m., and the Board needed to make a decision whether or not to continue; Planning and Development, Merritt Island Redevelopment Agency (MIRA), or they can stop; and there is one comment card for Sarah Skywind. The Board reached consensus to stop the Department Budget presentations for the day.

  • Brevard County Board of County Commissioners — Minutes
• Item D.

  PUBLIC COMMENTS

  approved - Sarah Skywind, representing Brevard Barkhouse Inc., stated she gave a handout to each Commissioner about her business; she was there the other day voicing the interest her non-profit for property at 2605 Flake Road, the old Brevard Sheriff’s Rescue; it is an older building, but is available, vacant right now, and is the only building available to be a shelter in Brevard County right now; in the past six months, between two homes, she and another person, have helped 52 dogs find permanent homes; they have had and taken in 6,000 pounds of food and have delivered to animals in need, and another 3,000 pounds of various other items for the animals in just under six months; that is following the laws and regulations of having animals at ones home to either foster or take care of; the law only allows four animals; and then on top of that, whoever the Board brings in and there is not a regulation for puppies six months or younger. She mentioned with that being said, she would like to expand their help to the community and would love to take over that building; they need it, the community needs it, and there has been questions about the condition of the building; she is well aware of the situation there; there is an itemize list of what needs to be done, it does not scare her; she knows there is a dollar amount people look at; however, she looks at project and each project, and she knows it can be accomplished; she would not be there if she thought it was impossible; and a lot of it is housekeeping honestly, though it does need a roof, and she has spoken to roofers, and she does not want to just get a roofer just to get in there, she is shopping. She continued her organization wants to take responsibility of the money and putting forth into the building; it is cheaper for them to use an existing building and then put their efforts, time, and donations into fixing it up; she believes it would be beneficial to the community to use that building, it is a wonderful place, a lot of magic can happen there, and will make it happen; they have support from Palm Bay all the way up to Edgewater, everywhere in between, and even out to Kissimmee, she has people waiting and ready to go; and she is asking the Board to look at the website, call, or ask any questions that they want to. Chairman Feltner asked if she had met with the District 1 Commissioner, because it is in Titusville. Ms. Skywind answered yes she has. Chairman Feltner explained that sounds like a District item eventually, possibly; and he remembers she spoke at the CEER workshop. Ms. Skywind stated she will be back on March 11th, because it will be about what to do with the building. Chairman Feltner asked if it is on the 11th Agenda. Ms. Skywind replied yes. Chairman Feltner replied he will show it then, and asked if there was anything else or other discussion. Commissioner Delaney stated something she brought up at the last workshop and wanted to bring it up again about public comment; as the Workshop had one Public Comment, she would like to propose for workshops to have, the Board did not want it after every Item, but if maybe have Public Comment at the beginning and the end just to be kind, so they do not have to sit through four hours of a meeting; and she wanted to talk about it. Chairman Feltner asked if it can be discussed at the meeting on March 11th so everyone can have a chance to sleep on it. Commissioner Delaney replied okay. Chairman Feltner asked if there was any other discussion, and then asked for Board Reports. Commissioner Altman stated he agreed with the County Administrator that they really need to work on the bathrooms at this building, during break he had an incident where a toilet had overflowed on him and not to get to graphic, but he has experienced it first hand, and strongly supports that initiative. Commissioner Goodson stated in the future go to Chick-Fil-A. Commissioner Altman commented that is a great idea. Chairman Feltner stated he suggested to Commissioner Altman it is a volume issue, it does not happen every day. Upon consensus of the Board, the meeting adjourned at 5:13 p.m. ATTEST: _________________________ _________________________________ RACHEL M. SADOFF, CLERK ROB FELTNER, CHAIRMAN BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA *Approved by the Board on July 8, 2025

  • Brevard County Board of County Commissioners — Minutes

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