Brevard County Board of County Commissioners

Tuesday, October 24, 2023 9:00 AM Brevard County Board of County Commissioners 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way Viera, FL 32940 Commission Chambers Minutes Regular October 24, 2023 A. CALL TO ORDER 9:00 AM Commissioner District 1 Rita Pritchett, Commissioner District 2 Tom Goodson, Commissioner District 3 John Tobia, Commissioner District 4 Rob Feltner, and Commissioner District 5 Jason Steele Present: C. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Commissioner Jason Steele, District 5 Commissioner Steele led the assembly in the Pledge of Allegiance. D. MINUTES FOR APPROVAL: September 7, 2023 Zoning; September 19, 2023 Final Budget; October 5, 2023 Zoning The Board approved the September 7, 2023, and October 5, 2023, zoning meeting minutes and the September 19, 2023, Final Budget meeting minutes. Result: APPROVED Mover: Jason Steele Seconder: John Tobia Ayes: Pritchett, Goodson, Tobia, Feltner, and Steele E.1. Resolution recognizing five Brevard County inductees to the Florida Veterans Hall of Fame. Chair Pritchett read aloud, and the Board adopted Resolution No. 23-125, recognizing five Brevard County inductees to the Florida Veterans Hall of Fame. A representative of the Florida Veterans expressed his appreciation for the Resolution and the recognition, but more importantly for the Board’s support; he stated in his experience going back 10 years ago he stood in the same spot and began to ask for money and support for veterans; this Board has never let the veterans down; it is unbelievable for those veterans that live in Brevard County to have the support from the people, the Commissioners, the State, and Tourist Development to be in the process of creating the best Veterans Memorial Center and Park in the State and probably the Country; and that does not happen without the County Commission. He noted before reading a statement of how all the veterans feel, he wanted to say, everyone gets to where they are because of their families, and spouses, and they never stop serving because that is the reason for serving in the first place, to protect the Country, their families, their battle buddies, and the spouses that they honor today; and he read, “We, the Brevard County resident members of the Florida Veterans Hall of Fame, thank you for the recognition that this honorable council has given us by acknowledging our individual inductions into the Florida Veterans Hall of Fame, our military service, and to this great nation, and our continued dedication to civic duty. We now take this opportunity to express our most sincere gratitude to each and every one of you of the Board of County Commissioners for this high honor, and for your dedication in your own right to your public service for all of Brevard County residents. Now let us continue to work together with one goal in mind, that is to make Brevard County the number one place, for all people to live, raise a family, work, and enjoy the numerous amenities that Brevard County, Florida has to offer;” and he stated God Bless. Result: ADOPTED Mover: Rob Feltner Seconder: Tom Goodson Ayes: Pritchett, Goodson, Tobia, Feltner, and Steele Page 1 of 25 October 24, 2023 E.2. Resolution honoring Mayor Hal Rose Commissioner Tobia read aloud, and the Board adopted Resolution No. 23-126, honoring Mayor Hal Rose. Mayor Hal Rose expressed his appreciation for the Resolution; he stated the City has done well over the years in anybody’s measure except for a couple of them say, ”where are the cows, they all disappeared in our City”; this is a growing city and it is doing very well; he has worked with all five members of the Commission in some way or fashion, bugging them with emails, phone calls, sitting in their offices, or visiting with them in Tallahassee, and together they got things done; they continued to work together for the betterment of this community; they all have different leadership styles; he even remembers working with Joe Wickham before he was elected into office, and Mr. Wickham had his own leadership style; they got things done; and he is just very proud of the City. He mentioned this City went 45 years with zero property tax; in 2003 they started property tax with a six to one vote, he voted against that; this year they have rolled the taxes back all the way to $1.99; and he wants to thank the Council members, leadership, and the City Manager for leading that charge. He reiterated the City is doing very well, and it will continue working with the Board for the betterment of the community. Result: ADOPTED Mover: John Tobia Seconder: Jason Steele Ayes: Pritchett, Goodson, Tobia, Feltner, and Steele E.3. Presentation: Duane DeFreese, Ph.D. Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program Progress Update 2023 - Looking Ahead to 2024 Duane DeFreese, Ph.D., stated he present representing the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) Council, an Independent Special District of Florida, and the IRL National Estuary Program (NEP); when he came in Virginia Barker, Natural Resources Management Director, asked when the last time was that he was in chambers; he hates to say it, but it was pre-COVID, between COVID and Cancer; it is great to see everyone face-to-face; and he noted he is going to go quickly through the slides. He went on to say, they had just finished their eighth year; he wanted to provide a full update as quickly as possible on where they stand, where they are going, and to recognize that Commissioner Feltner serves the Board on his Council Board of Directors; the first question he gets asked everywhere he goes is, how does the Lagoon look; he is happy to say the last 24 months he has seen some of the best water quality that he has seen in a decade; however, that should not be taken for granted because it is a very tenuous moment that it is at. He continued by saying, looking at this slide, one can see the catastrophic collapse of seagrass from 2011 to 2020; on the middle graph, one can see where the Lagoon is as of a couple of months ago; it is really incredible, a surprising recovery of seagrass in Mosquito Lagoon, which is the lower right-hand picture; and it reminds him of the old days. He stated as one moves south, the patchiness and the rarity gets more and more; they are in the middle of a very big battle to return this system to what people remember; also this year there has been a fair number of harmful algae blooms; in this top picture it has been a better year for the tourism industry with nighttime bioluminescent tours; and thankfully, those algae blooms were sporadic, patchy, and intense at times, but definitely manageable. He added as he moves forward he just wants to remind everyone why it is so vulnerable; the County is narrow, thin, and there is very little flushing in the system; everything people do on land, whether it is septic tanks, sewer, or stormwater, it ultimately impacts a system; and one of the things that many of the citizens do not understand is that the system does not flow from north to south the way people think, it is wind driven, so when they manage, they are really managing in local East/West segments. He went on to say what happens in Brevard on the north end is different than the south end; it Page 2 of 25 October 24, 2023 creates a lot of confusion for the public and challenges those who are doing management in looking to figure out where to prioritize management; there is also a very heavy political presence with seven counties, and 1.6 million residents; and every agency one can imagine from local, state, and federal are engaged in the process. He noted he serves a National Estuary Program that is one of 28 in the nation; it is here because of authorization by the U.S. Congress, Section 320 of the Clean Water Act; it is one of four in the State of Florida and one of 28 in North America and Puerto Rico; they work together on a regular basis to talk, share data, and share successes and failures; most importantly, they are non-regulatory, consensus-building, and work with communities; and it is a federal program that has really delivered from the local level and up. He stated this is where they stand since 2015; he thanked the Board for the creation of the IRL Council and continuing the stable revenue share in the Interlocal Agreement; they have seen incremental increases almost every year at the federal level, which is largely due to strong bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate; they share leadership, responsibility, and investments, and they operate in a very unusual way; he has 100 volunteers in three committees and one sub-committee consisting of scientists, citizens, resource managers, and policy makers; all of the work moves through this management committee to the Board of Directors who make decisions; and they handle all of that now with a staff of eight, which is the largest they have ever been since its creation. He mentioned they will be moving quickly next year to update the 10-year Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan; he will be reaching out to County staff and Ms. Barker and her team to make sure that their plan aligns with their partners in the counties and the cities; this will take a good year, but the goal is to update the plan by 2025 and to put some new high metrics on the table for where to go in the next five years; in the heart of that plan, and this will not change, is that they have identified 32 vital signs for the IRL; not all get the same level of pressure and focus each year with this program, but they try to move forward throughout that wheel for clean water, habitat restoration, and some of the species that rely on clean water and habitat restoration; what makes them very unique is that they pay a lot of attention to community development, economic development, and economy; and that whole lower part is really all about community and how they work together. He stated there are a number of additional products that they put out, and this is just an example; all of their documents are online for anyone’s use, including all of their annual reports, financial statements, audits, and they will continue to fill gaps where information is necessary throughout the entire Lagoon; one big difference these last couple of years has been the infrastructure and investment act at the federal level; they work as an association of national estuary programs early on the COVID epidemic to let Congress know that the NEPs were ready, willing, and able even though they are really small in comparison to other agencies, that they could take any monies that they delivered to them, and deliver a really good return on investment value; they heard their words and were allocated $132 million as a line item in the bipartisan infrastructure law bill; that money is being used now in two different directions in their program; this $909,800 annually for five years is building an infrastructure for seagrass restoration with five nurseries; and the remainder will be used for some of the communities that are small, rural, economically or infrastructurally challenged to bring up some of the smaller communities and provide some assistance in moving projects forward. He pointed out this is an example; there are five sites now in some stage of operation; pay close attention to that right-hand; if anybody in the public says planting seagrass is a waste of time, that is an out-planting at Florida Oceanographic Society, one year of growth; they will be doing this in selected areas; this is important to note, they are not planting their way to over 40,000 acres of lost sea grasses, they are only going to help accelerate nature because the goal is still water quality; what is being done in Brevard County is historic with the Save Our Indian River Lagoon (SOIRL) Program; and the other big historic moment was Governor Ron DeSantis’s Executive Order 23-06, it created the IRL Protection Program and allocated with Legislative support, $100 million for this year. He continued by saying Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) is now going Page 3 of 25 October 24, 2023 through numerous proposals for those dollars; he knows there were a number of proposals from this County; the IRL National Estuary Program stood down on that and said they would support the County, but will not chase those dollars as a state agency; that is where they are right now; and they are ready to help FDEP and the governor’s office to move that program forward any way they need them to. He mentioned there is a new license plate that is being managed through their program; all the license plate fees stay within the County that those license plates are bought; if anybody is running up and down I-95, they will see a few billboards as they rollout a campaign; they have not seen a lot of money from this, but it does fund projects that are on the ground; and five percent can be used for marketing and there is no overhead or administrative fees. He went on to say, lastly, they provide free grant writing support to anybody who needs it; it is a line item that he places in the budget every year; they have three contracted professional grant writers; he thinks they have assisted in 10 proposals in just the last two months; this is first come, first served; they will provide that service to projects that will protect the Lagoon, until the money runs out; this is a full accounting of where the money has gone throughout the NEP, over the eight years of operation by County; there are 195 projects; they assemble all the projects that are being done by their partners that are not funded through their program; this year 301 projects and 870 over the last three years; therefore, they are working hard to make this happen. He thanked staff, the Board, and the citizens of Brevard County. He noted he gets to look at 28 National Estuary Programs and he does not know that there is a single County in the nation that is making the level of commitment that Brevard County is through the SOIRL Program with the very dedicated and hardworking staff. Chair Pritchett asked for Dr. DeFreese to go to a specific slide in his presentation; she mentioned she thinks that would be something really good for the community to see; and it is an overall view of just the projects that have been completed, many this year. Dr. DeFreese stated they release four Request for Proposals (RFP) every year in the fall; there are four active right now in water quality habitat restoration community-based restoration, science and monitoring; sometime in December or January they will release their small grants program; they realize that a lot of small NGO’s teachers just cannot avail themselves of big competitive grants; anywhere from $500 to $5,000, easy entry; and they really like that program. He added it is amazing what a small grant can do to transform a small organization; then that very new RFP for the small local communities; and it will be sometime in 2024 once they set up a policy and a process. Chair Pritchett mentioned that Dr. DeFreese’s passion for all of these projects is wonderful, along with Ms. Barker; Brevard County has the two best people fighting for the Lagoon and she believes that in her heart with all the knowledge and the direction that they have for this; she also wants to note that this is the only place that she knows of that did a self-imposed tax to help clean up the Lagoon, so kudos to the citizens as well; she remembers when she was running her campaign, her campaign manager stated they just have to quit putting the bad stuff in and start getting the bad stuff out; she thought that sounded pretty simple; but basically, they do all those technical things to accomplish things; and she knew it would take a long time. She mentioned the people are starting to see some results, but they are nowhere near where they need to be; this is probably a lifetime generational project; Dr. DeFreese has been through a lot of challenges and he just stayed the course working on this project; and she cannot thank him enough. Dr. DeFreese stated there is nothing more important to this community than clean water; bottom line is every business, every tourism industry, every home appraisal, if the Lagoon has dirty water, there are problems; and that is what they are working to resolve. Page 4 of 25 October 24, 2023 Commissioner Feltner thanked Dr. DeFreese for providing the Board with an update; he stated as the Commissioner on the NEP for Brevard County, he really thinks Dr. DeFreese and his staff are the organization that provides focus for the multiple counties, but Brevard County is leading the way in the Lagoon cleanup; and he appreciates what Dr. DeFreese does with the NEP. Chair Pritchett thanked Dr. DeFreese for his time and stated that if he ever needs anything to let the Board know. Dr. DeFreese advised for the Board to do the same. Commissioner Steele stated he would like a moment of personal privilege; he has worked with Dr. DeFreese for probably 35 to 40 years now; there is no finer human being that he could have ever met in his entire life that has dedicated themselves to Brevard County like Dr. DeFreese has; the challenges that he has overcome have been unbelievable and yet that does not make him hesitate at all from being probably the most brilliant scientist that he knows on staff; and he just wants Dr. DeFreese to know how much he appreciates him. He continued on to say he talked to Kristine Zonka before he was appointed and she asked him what he was going to do about staff when he gets elected or appointed; he told her that is simple, she has the most brilliant staff he knows of; the person that led the staff there is Danielle Stern; and he wanted to recognize Danielle today as it is her birthday. Chair Pritchett mentioned she wanted to do a quick shout out to former Commissioner Zonka who is in attendance today. F.1. Cost Sharing Agreement 38968 with St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) Flamingo Drive - Basin 1280 B Denitrification Project The Board executed and approved SJRWMD Cost-Sharing Agreement 38968; authorized execution of grant amendments and modifications by the County Manager or designee upon review and approval by the County Attorney’s Office, Risk Management, and Purchasing Services; authorized execution by the County Manager or designee of all competitively procured construction contracts, amendments, and change orders; and authorized associated Budget Change Requests. Result: APPROVED Mover: Tom Goodson Seconder: Jason Steele F.2. Completing an Expanded Brevard County Vulnerability Assessment along Tropical Trail from Highways 520 to 528 Sandra Sullivan stated she just wanted to thank the Board for this project; this is a resiliency project to vertically locate critical stormwater infrastructure necessary to evaluate the extent of inundation in the Indian River Lagoon due to storm surge and sea level rise; as the Board knows, going over 520, an evaluation of the outfalls, which Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) did a presentation recently actually showing the outfalls in the area of Satellite Beach and South Patrick Shores, including Hightower, these are very vulnerable to storm events and sea level rise; and she just wanted to commend the Board for the extension of this project and leveraging grant money to do it. She continued by saying, to that point, when there is a king tide, the 520 causeway can be flooded; this time of year in the fall, the rivers are always the highest, much higher than the rest of the year; it makes the area very vulnerable in the time of a hurricane coming, should there be one; Tammy is out there and they do not know Page 5 of 25 October 24, 2023 if she is going to hit the East coast or not; when hit with a hurricane in the fall, the rivers are very high; and she would guess the outfalls would be problematic. She showed a slide to the Board advising this is Merritt Island and a 10-year storm event, not a 100-year storm event; she stated as people can see, it is mostly under water; this is very important and this is the evacuation area of the barrier island; of course, being able to get off the barrier island is related to storm surge; it is under six to nine-plus feet of storm surge and so the evacuation of the barrier island is very important; and this data will be very helpful in prioritizing. She continued by saying another piece of fact about 520 is it was at 96 percent capacity and now at 99 percent capacity, therefore, getting people off right now at 99 percent capacity and add flooding to the that, pre-landfall on that causeway, how are they going to get people off the barrier island; this is a safety issues; and she just wanted to thank the Board because this is a very important study that it is doing. The Board executed and approved the Task Order; authorized execution of future task orders, amendments, and modifications by the County Manager or designee; and authorized any necessary Budget Change Requests. Result: APPROVED Mover: Tom Goodson Seconder: Jason Steele F.3. Final Plat Approval, Re: Crossmolina - Village 2, Neighborhood 7, Phase 1 Developer: The Viera Company District 4 The Board executed and granted final plat approval and Contract for Crossmolina – Village 2, Neighborhood 7, Phase 1 – Developer The Viera Company, subject to minor engineering changes as applicable, and developer responsible for obtaining all other necessary jurisdictional permits. Result: APPROVED Mover: Tom Goodson Seconder: Jason Steele F.4. Approval, Re: Dedication by 1) Warranty Deed for Tract L of North lsland Villas and Bill of Sale Related to Lift Station R-13, and 2) Warranty Deed for Tract M for Right of Way from North lsland Villas (FL) Owner lV LLC - District 2 The Board approved accepting the Warranty Deed for Tract L of North Island Villas and Bill of Sale related to Lift Station R-13; and approved accepting the Warranty Deed for Tract M for right-of-way from North Island Villas (FL) Owner IV LLC. Result: APPROVED Mover: Tom Goodson Seconder: Jason Steele F.5. Approval, Re: Dedication of Utility Easement from Quattro VFL Ford, LLC for Ford’s Garage Viera Project - District 4. The Board accepted the Utility Easement from Quattro VFL Ford, LLC for Ford’s Garage Viera Project. Result: APPROVED Mover: Tom Goodson Seconder: Jason Steele F.6. Approval, Re: Dedication by Warranty Deed for Tract E of Village 2 Center and Bill Page 6 of 25 October 24, 2023 of Sale from The Viera Company for the benefit of Lift Station W-44 - District 4 The Board approved accepting the Warranty Deed for Tract E of Village 2 Center and Bill of Sale from The Viera Company for the benefit of Lift Station W-44. Result: APPROVED Mover: Tom Goodson Seconder: Jason Steele F.7. Board Approval: 2023-2024 Emergency Management Performance Grant Agreement with the Florida Division of Emergency Management The Board approved and authorized the Chair to sign the 2023-2024 Emergency Management Performance Grant Agreement with the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM), and all future Emergency Management Performance Grant agreements as approved by the County Attorney; and authorized the County Manager to submit and execute required Budget Change Requests, documents, amendments, or other administrative actions to the grant contract, subject to approval by the County Attorney’s Office and Risk Management. Result: APPROVED Mover: Tom Goodson Seconder: Jason Steele F.8. Board Approval: 2023-2024 Emergency Management Preparedness & Assistance Grant Agreement with the Florida Division of Emergency Management The Board approved and authorized the Chair to sign the 2023-2024 Emergency Management Preparedness and Assistance Grant Agreement with FDEM, and all future Emergency Management Preparedness and Assistance Grant agreements as approved by the County Attorney; and authorized the County Manager to submit and execute required Budget Change Requests (BCR), documents, amendments, or other administrative actions to the grant contract, subject to approval by the County Attorney’s Office and Risk Management. Result: APPROVED Mover: Tom Goodson Seconder: Jason Steele F.9. Board Authorization to transfer funds to purchase Sutphen Pumpers (Fire Engines) The Board approved to transfer $271,720 from Capital Outlay Reserves to complete the purchase of two (2) Sutphen Custom Pumpers, amending its approved Fiscal Year 2023-2024 budget; and authorized the County Manager to approve all necessary Budget Change Requests (BCR) or other necessary administrative actions. Result: APPROVED Mover: Tom Goodson Seconder: Jason Steele F.10. Approval, Re: Budget Change Request The Board approved the Budget Change Request (BCR), as submitted. Result: APPROVED Mover: Tom Goodson Seconder: Jason Steele F.11. Approval, re: Amendment to Existing SAP Professional Services Agreement and Page 7 of 25 October 24, 2023 Approval of Order Form for General Ledger Migration Project as part of the SAP HANA Database Migration The Board approved and authorized the Chair to execute the Amendment to existing Professional Services Agreement with SAP Public Services, Inc. (f/k/a SAP America Public Sector, Inc.) to incorporate contract provisions required by Florida law; approved SAP Order Form No. 30538658 for the SAP Finance Module General Ledger (GL) migration as an integral step of the technical SAP S/4 HANA migration project; and authorized the County Manager to execute the Amendment and Order Form, and any subsequent related order forms, agreements, task orders, change orders, modifications, and amendments. Result: APPROVED Mover: Tom Goodson Seconder: Jason Steele F.12. Appointment(s) / Reappointments The Board appointed/ reappointed Bill Vollmer to serve on the TPO Citizens Advisory Committee, with said term of appointment to expire December 31, 2024; Steve Burdett to serve on the Citizens Budget Review Committee, with said term to expire December 31, 2025; Robert L. Socks to serve on the Investment Committee, with said term to expire December 31, 2025; Gordon Schleffer to serve on the Community Action Board, with said appointment to expire December 31, 2024; and Kika Golan to serve on the Employee Benefits and Insurance Advisory Committee, with said appointment to expire December 31, 2024. Result: APPROVED Mover: Tom Goodson Seconder: Jason Steele F.13. Bill Folder The Board acknowledged receipt of the Bill Folder, as submitted. Result: APPROVED Mover: Tom Goodson Seconder: Jason Steele G.1. Public Hearing: Amendment to Chapter 2, Article VI, Division 2, Section 2-176, Brevard County Code of Ordinances, “Administrative Fines; Costs of Repairs; Liens.” Chair Pritchett called for a public hearing on an amendment to Chapter 2 Article VI, Division 2, Section 2-176, Brevard County Code of Ordinances, “Administrative Fines; Costs of Repairs; and Liens. Billy Prasad, Planning and Development Strategic Operations Manager, stated this is a public hearing to consider amending Chapter 2, Article VI, Division 2, Section 2-176, Brevard County Code in order to streamline a Code Enforcement process for foreclosures actions to recover money judgments to match the approval requirements found in State Statute; and the Board issued legislative intent and permission to advertise this amendment on September 19, 2023. There being no comments or objections, the Board conducted a public hearing and adopted Ordinance No. 23-27, amending Chapter 2, Article VI, Division 2, Section 2-176, "Administrative Fines; Cost of Repairs; Liens" to remove the Board of County Commissioners as an entity authorizing foreclosures on Code Enforcement liens and suits to recover a money judgment; providing for severability; providing for area encompassed; providing an effective date; and Page 8 of 25 October 24, 2023 providing for inclusion in the Code of Ordinances of Brevard County, Florida. Result: ADOPTED Mover: Rob Feltner Seconder: Jason Steele Ayes: Pritchett, Goodson, Tobia, Feltner, and Steele G.2. Public Hearing Re: Brevard County and the HOME Consortium’s Citizen Participation Plan Chair Pritchett called for a public hearing on Brevard County and the HOME Consortium’s Citizen Participation Plan. Ian Golden, Housing and Human Services Director, stated this is a public hearing for the Citizen Participation Plan; it is an update to an existing plan; it is a requirement by Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that there is a process in place to accept input from citizens into the different reports and plans to go to the departments federal funding; and the main update to this plan has been formatting and allowing for acceptance of public comments and posting on the County’s website. There being no comments or objections, the Board conducted the public hearing and approved the HOME Consortium’s Citizen Participation Plan. Result: APPROVED Mover: Jason Steele Seconder: John Tobia Ayes: Pritchett, Goodson, Tobia, Feltner, and Steele G.3. Public Hearing Re: The Brevard County and HOME Consortium’s 2023-2028 Assessment of Fair Housing Chair Pritchett called for a public hearing on Brevard County and the HOME Consortium’s 2023-2028 assessment of fair housing. Ian Golden, Housing and Human Services Director, stated this public hearing is for assessment of fair housing; it is another plan that is required by Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for funding; primarily this covers and looks at the different housing types within the County itself and looks at barriers; there are some activities included in this and actions having to deal with public outreach and education, creating affordable rental housing which his office already works towards, and aligning initiatives to increase opportunity for undisturbed residents which his office also continuously works towards; they received two comments during the public comment period; however, neither were actually tied to or related to the plan itself. There being no further comments or objections, the Board conducted the public hearing and approved the County and HOME Consortium’s 2023-2028 Assessment of Fair Housing. Result: APPROVED Mover: Jason Steele Seconder: John Tobia Ayes: Pritchett, Goodson, Tobia, Feltner, and Steele G.4. Public Hearing: Amendment to Chapter 62, Article I, Section 62-2, “Rules of Page 9 of 25 October 24, 2023 construction and definitions,” Brevard County Code of Ordinances, to add a definition of “Major Transit Stop,” in order to comply with Chapter 2023-17, Laws of Florida (Live Local Act) Chair Pritchett called for a public hearing on an amendment to Chapter 62, Article I, Section 62-2, “Rules of Construction and Definitions,” Brevard County Code of Ordinances, to add a definition of “Major Transit Stop,” in order to comply with Chapter 2023-17, Laws of Florida (Live Local Act). Billy Prasad, Planning and Development Strategic Operations Manager, stated this is a public hearing to consider an amendment to Section 62-2, Brevard County Code, in order to add a definition of “Major Transit Stop”; this is being requested in order to comply with the Live Local Act which contemplates such definition being in the County’s Land Development Code in order to carry out certain mandates relating to consideration of reduced parking requirements; the Board issued legislative intent and permission to advertise for this on September 12, 2023; specifically, language matching Option A in the Agenda Report was approved for legislative intent; and the Building and Construction Advisory Committee unanimously recommended approval of that language. He went on to say the Planning and Zoning Board recommended adopting a definition that would qualify all of Brevard County Transit operated bus stops as major transit stops; and that definition is listed as Option B in the Agenda Report. Sandra Sullivan stated the Live Local Act, she calls the “you will own nothing and be happy law” because it is socialism; it gives a 75 percent discount to developers developing low-income and middle-income housing; of course, that is a greater problem; before the Board today is Option A or Option B; Option A is to adopt the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) definition for “Major Transit Stop”; when searching the internet there are lots of legal opinions that are consistent with the FDOT definition; if the Board chooses to do the one that came before the Planning and Zoning Board, she would suggest this Board is encouraging socialism; and that would very much surprise her as this Board is elected Republicans. She pointed out she is attending all of the Charter Review meetings and has been at a lot of meetings that a lobbyist is pushing this bill, and somebody is going to have to pick up the tab; she noted if the Board selects the one that allows any bus stop to be a “Major Transit Stop” that does not meet any definition online, then what this Board is doing is it is facilitating development with more density on the barrier island where there are evacuation issues; and just as a side, most of the Board does not attend the Transportation and Planning Organization (TPO) meetings which is unfortunate, but they had a presentation by Eastern Central Regional Planning Council, where they described that it is going to get to a point where the roads cannot be widened to meet capacity needs because of the growth in Florida. She added the presentation was about moving people to urban centers to take people out of their cars and keep them in an isolated area; everything they talked about was 15-minute cities; she would not imagine herself saying that a year ago, and yet here it is in State documents talking about that; that is really what this SB102 is about; it is socialism; also the Board, by adopting a more generous definition, will be putting the people who live on the barrier island at risk for getting off of the barrier island; and it is socialism, an automatic 75 percent discount for middle-income housing, which means the real middle America, the people that the American dream of owning their own home and raising their family, are going to be the ones burdened with higher tax rates, because somebody has got to pay for the roads, somebody has to pay for the police and fire. She advised impact fees have not been updated in 20 to 32 years, and the Board is relying on property taxes to pay for infrastructure. There being no further comments or objections, the Board conducted the public hearing and adopted Ordinance No. 23-28, amending Chapter 62, Article I, Section 62-2, “Rules of Page 10 of 25 October 24, 2023 Construction and Definitions” to add a definition of “Major Transit Stop”; providing for conflicting provisions; providing for severability; providing for area encompassed; providing as effective date; and providing for inclusion in the Code of Ordinances of Brevard County, Florida. Result: ADOPTED Mover: John Tobia Seconder: Rob Feltner Ayes: Pritchett, Goodson, Tobia, Feltner, and Steele G.5. Petition to Vacate, Re: Public Right-of-Way - Aspinwall Avenue & Unnamed Right-of-Way - “Plan of Town of Pineda” Plat Book 1 Page 41 - Rockledge - IR TIKI LLC, Brevard County, and Ashma Luthra - District 2 Acceptance of Quit Claim and Warranty Deed, Re: Lot 13, Block 51, Plan of Town of Pineda, Plat Book 1, Page 41, and portions of Aspinwall Ave and Unnamed Rights-of-Ways described as Parcel 101, lying in Plan of Town of Pineda, Plat Book 1, Page 41 - IR TIKI LLC, Brevard County, and Ashma Luthra - District 2 Chair Pritchett called for public hearing on a petition to vacate a public right-of-way, Aspinwall Avenue and unnamed right-of-way, “Plan or Town of Pineda” plat book 1, page 41, Rockledge, IR TIKI LLC, Brevard County and Ashma Luthra; and acceptance of a quit claim and warranty deed for lot 13, block 51, “Plan of Town of Pineda,” plat book 1, page 41, and portions of Aspinwall Avenue and unnamed right-of-ways described in parcel 101, lying in “Plan of Town of Pineda,” plat book 1, page 41, IR TIKI LLC, Brevard County and Ashma Luthra. Marc Bernath, Public Works Director, stated this is a petition to vacate a public right-of-way on Aspinwall Avenue and an unnamed right-of-way. There being no comments or objections, the Board conducted a public hearing to consider vacating part of a public right-of-way, established by the plat “Plan of Town of Pineda”, Plat Book 1, Page 41, in Section 18, Township 26 South, Range 37 East; executed and adopted Resolution 23-127; executed and adopted Resolution 23-128, pursuant to Section 125.38, Florida Statutes, granting a utility easement from the County to Florida Power and Light; accepted the utility easement required as a condition of the vacate; and authorized the Chair to sign any other related documents necessary to effectuate the vacating and acceptance of any associated deed to the County. Result: ADOPTED Mover: Tom Goodson Seconder: Jason Steele Ayes: Pritchett, Goodson, Tobia, Feltner, and Steele G.6. Approval, Re: Resolution, Exchange Agreement, and Lease Agreement from 890 N. Courtenay LLC for the Lift Station C17 Relocation and Reconstruction Project - District 2. Chair Pritchett called for public hearing on a resolution, exchange agreement, and lease agreement from 890 North Courtenay LLC for the Lift Station C17 Relocation and Reconstruction Project. Marc Bernath, Public Works Director stated this is a resolution, exchange agreement, and lease agreement from 890 North Courtenay LLC for the Lift Station C17 Relocation and Reconstruction Project; and there are no issues. Page 11 of 25 October 24, 2023 There being no comments or objections, the Board executed and adopted Resolution No. 23-129, authorizing the exchange of County property and property interests for other real property and property interests owned by 890 N. Courtenay LLC; authorized the Chair to execute the Exchange Agreement and Lease Agreement for the Lift Station C17 Relocation and Reconstruction Project; and authorized the Chair to sign any necessary documents associated with this exchange. Result: ADOPTED Mover: Tom Goodson Seconder: Rob Feltner Ayes: Pritchett, Goodson, Tobia, Feltner, and Steele G.7. Ordinance amending Chapter 14 - Animals, Article III. - Animal Care Facilities of the Brevard County Code of Ordinances. Chair Pritchett called for a public hearing on an ordinance amending Chapter 14, animals, Article III, Animal Care Facilities of the Brevard County Code of Ordinances. Morris Richardson, County Attorney, stated this is an ordinance that would amend Chapter 14 of the County Code to move the current inspection of animal care facilities which includes boarding facilities, kennels, grooming facilities, and things like that from under the Department of Health and into the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO), Animal Services Division; the Department of Health requested the change; and BCSO is supportive of it. There being no comments or objections, the Board conducted a public hearing and adopted Ordinance No. 23-29, amending Chapter 14, Article III entitled "Animal Care Facilities"; amending Section 14-36, "Definitions"; amending Section 14-87, "Penalty"; amending Section 14-90, "Inspections"; amending Section 14-91, "Standards"; amending Section 14-116, "Required; Application; Terms"; repealing Section 14-117, "Renewal"; amending Section 14-118, "Denial or Revocation; Procedure upon Violation"; creating a new Section 14-119, "Violation Fee Schedule"; providing for conflicts, severability, codification, area encompassed, and an effective date; and for other purposes. Result: ADOPTED Mover: Rob Feltner Seconder: Jason Steele Ayes: Pritchett, Goodson, Tobia, Feltner, and Steele Chair Pritchett stated she has to tell former Commissioner Zonka that all the changes she is making over there is really streamlining everything; it is pretty remarkable and she is hearing a lot of good things; and all the people who work there like her too. I.1. Board Approval, BCC-100, “Evaluation Procedures for Development Proposals Pursuant to the Live Local Act Which Are Not Otherwise Permissible.” Tad Calkins, Planning and Development Director, stated this is a consideration for a policy for the evaluation procedures of development proposals pursuant to the Live Local Act; in March of 2023, Governor DeSantis signed that into law and it was to encourage and facilitate affordable housing; in there it contains several elements related to land use; and this policy is just to help staff establish a procedure for review and enforcement of those. He advised if the Board has any questions he would be happy to answer them. Page 12 of 25 October 24, 2023 Sandra Sullivan stated affordable housing for everyone, right; there are 1,000 people per day coming into Florida and there has to be somewhere to put them, that is what one of the State Representatives said the other day; as she said earlier, she calls this, “you own nothing and will be happy”; she never would have imagined saying that; SB102 is socialism; it is one thing to have it for low-income housing, it is another thing for it to be everyday middle class America housing; an Area median Income (AMI) of 120 for a family of four is almost $98,000; this is going to give those developers a 75 percent discount on their property taxes; and somebody is going to have to make that up. She continued by saying in attending the affordable housing summit, it said if a proposed project satisfies the existing Land Development Regulation (LDR) and Comprehensive Plan, project must be administratively approved; looking at what Orlando did, Orlando said SB102 does not really do much for them because their LDR prohibits next to single family homes, which are only allowed four density units per acre; Brevard County, in its LDRs in Section 62 says, developments located in unincorporated Brevard County within any Coastal High Hazard area defined in the Comprehensive Plan, or on any barrier island, are not eligible for density bonus under this section; this Board is ignoring that and it is allowing it in more places than it should be; and according to the Affordable Housing Coalition, they say Section 7 does not specify whether the highest allowed density refers to by-right densities or whether it includes bonus densities. She mentioned there are Commissioners here that want to increase density on the barrier island; that happened when a vote was taken under Board Reports by Commissioner Tobia last year; and then the South Beaches moved to an area of critical concern. She noted right now there is a $699 million deficit in capacity needs for transportation; she held a paper up, stating this is from the Board’s 2024 budget; there is State Road 520 and in the County’s plans there is a lot of workforce housing and affordable housing to go into Merritt Island, the barrier island; but that highway has gone from 93 percent to 99 percent capacity; and she inquired who is going to pay for that because this Board has not updated the impact fees for transportation in 23 years. She showed another picture to the Board stating that was 520 this week at 99 percent capacity; most of the Board does not show up at Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) meetings to even know the issues. Chair Pritchett inquired if Ms. Sullivan is running for office somewhere soon, in Merritt Island. Ms. Sullivan advised she has been doing this for five years; and she has been consistent in coming and being a watchdog. Chair Pritchett advised that was her only question. Ms. Sullivan responded by saying no she is not running for office, it is because she cares about Brevard… Chair Pritchett interjected saying Ms. Sullivan is done. Commissioner Steele stated it is always interesting being on the County Commission; first of all he would like to let everybody in the audience know that Senate Bill 102 is a law; it is passed by the legislature, the Governor promoted it; the reason the Governor promoted it is short term rentals are over abundant in Brevard County, as a result they are everywhere that one can see; what that has done is it has increased the value of homes; and he is a property rights guy and he is all for that if they are in the right location, but what is going on is big corporations are coming in and buying blocks of housing and using them as short-term rentals. He continued by saying they are starting to get $1,500 to $2,000 a week and by the end of the month they have $8,000 coming in; it does not take too much to figure out what they are getting in a year’s time; what that does to the value is it skyrockets and as a result nobody can afford to buy a house any longer; the Governor got involved in this and said there needs to be an incentive for people Page 13 of 25 October 24, 2023 to bring low moderate housing in specific areas; and that is why the bill was passed. He noted Mr. Calkins has no choice; he can do an ordinance, that is what is being done, and Mr. Calkins has done a great job with this; it is the law, and the Board cannot overturn the law. He added run for the Legislature and one can do that. Chair Pritchett stated she thinks it is a good idea; the business she works in, people cannot even rent places right now; something has to be done; there is a voter-approved trust fund that is set up to try to get affordable housing; the community is in; and Brevard County is in on this project. Commissioner Steele commented he just wanted to set the record straight on Senate Bill 102. Chair Pritchett commented she did not even think about people coming in and renting places and that driving up the prices; Commissioner Steele is right; and it is an incredible day that the world is in trying to get people into homes. Commissioner Goodson stated if one knows anything about the State of Florida and Senate Bill 102, great intentions, but there are going to be issues with it; those might go back to Tallahassee to be worked out, he would assume they would have to; he hopes for the best; but sometimes what one says and does ends up in a pile of rubble. Chair Pritchett commented hopefully the Board will be able to maneuver through it with a little common sense going forward. The Board approved BCC-100, “Evaluation Procedures for Development Proposals Pursuant to the Live Local Act Which are Not Otherwise Permissible.” Result: APPROVED Mover: Jason Steele Seconder: John Tobia Ayes: Pritchett, Goodson, Tobia, Feltner, and Steele I.2. Acknowledgment of Receipt of Resort Dwelling Report and Seeking Board Direction Regarding Enforcement of Resort Dwellings and Related Matters Billy Prasad, Planning and Development Strategic Operations Manager, state this is a request for acknowledgment of receipt of a report regarding resort dwellings and seeking related Board direction; on August 22, the Board requested staff to prepare a report regarding enforcement of unpermitted resort dwellings, specifically the Board directed staff to consider proactive Code Enforcement, use of software improvements, and fine structures; the report is attached to the agenda; also included are several options for Board consideration on providing direction; and these include procuring software to identify illicit resort dwellings, adopting a proactive enforcement model for resort dwellings for Code Enforcement and fire prevention, and adopting a registration program. Chair Pritchett thanked Commissioner Steele for championing this. Sandra Sullivan stated she would like to thank the Board for doing this particular bill; as was stated, the short-term rentals has become quite a problem in certain communities; for example, Cocoa Beach, and it is even destroying single–family communities and has taken a lot of property off of the market that would otherwise be rentals, supply and demand; this is a capitalist country; but for rules, really what the State needed to do was address this issue; there Page 14 of 25 October 24, 2023 has been a 100 percent increase in the number of short-term rentals according to the Tourist Development Tax (TDT) data that came out in a meeting; therefore, she is appreciative of this. She noted she would also encourage an additional factor for the Board to consider; in her community there are a lot of illegal rentals and she has reported on a few herself; an investor will buy and rent as a short-term rental, it will get reported, Code Enforcement did a magnificent job and she cannot say enough about the staff there, they are really amazing, but that owner sells to another investor who then turns around and does exactly the same thing, and it is reported again; if there was a way to put on the Property Appraiser’s site that a property is a short-term rental, because a friend of hers bought a home and in the listing it stated this could be used as a short term rental, so she bought it and found that she could not do that; and she respects the rules so she is not doing that, but some people do not respect the rules. She mentioned if there was a way, even if it was just in the unincorporated areas, to update the Property Appraiser’s Office that a buyer buying a home can check those records whether it can be rented, it would help clear that up because there are a lot of people who do not know and will rent it, but they were just not aware. Commissioner Steele stated he is going to mark this day down as one of the favorite days of his entire life because Sandra Sullivan and he agree on an issue; for the last three years he has fought as a lobbyist, and he is proud to be a lobbyist, the short-term rental in Brevard County and in the State of Florida; Airbnb has contributed millions of dollars to every legislator and every Senator that is in Tallahassee; what has happened with that is the State of Florida has come in and they preempted almost everything that one can imagine with short-term rentals; and as a result of that, one can place a short-term rental just about anywhere unless there is an ordinance in place prior to 2011. He mentioned the reason he is trying to get a handle on this is because he cannot stand people that are unfair and do not pay their fair share; he talked to a company called Decker Technology; he and a variety of other people were in a meeting and listened to them very carefully; he is not saying that Decker Technology is who the Board would pick, but this is what came out of that meeting and at some point in time he would love for every Commissioner to hear that presentation; one thing he found out was that Decker Technology, every night, scans every newspaper, every Periodical, just everything that one could imagine, to determine who is putting out ads for rentals in the area; when they do that they can find out whether or not those are legal rentals or not legal rentals; and if they are an illegal rental they would automatically file a letter that goes to that particular person that states something like, “We’ve noticed that on October 28, or whatever the date, that you have advertised your property as a short-term rental, and you’re not in compliance with the law of registration, or whatever the law might be in a specific area.” He went on to say for how long they have been circumventing the tax that goes to the Tourist Development Council (TDC), for how long they have been fooling the Property Appraiser, for how long the Tax Collector has not been able to collect taxes, the County is in a big giant mess; he does not know the percentages but he can say one thing, he thinks everybody knows that the percentages are very high of unregistered, illegal short-term rentals; those people are breaking the law and taking money away from everyone; and he does not like that this is a County that is proactive in Code Enforcement, it just bothers him to have to go after people, but in this particular case he does not think the Board has a choice. He continued by saying he thinks the Board has to be proactive, it has to go forward to determine who is doing the short-term rentals illegally, and it has to make sure they are paying their fair share; this will not only help the TDC, it will help the Brevard County Property Appraiser, it will help the Tax Collector, and it will help everybody else; and it will put people in compliance with what the law is. He mentioned he is asking at some point in time for the County to be able to go out and do a Request for Proposal (RFP) to determine what kind of technology is needed to make sure the County can be proactive and in fact, go after the people who are breaking the law and put them in compliance with the law. Page 15 of 25 October 24, 2023 Commissioner Tobia stated he wants to begin by mentioning what a great job staff did on this report; he thinks overwhelmingly the work product, no matter where one stands on the issue, was done extremely well; he has one point with the fiscal impact and one other question; the person that spoke up here, it was a different person, one who had a beard, and he asked if this was an eight hour project or if this did in fact take longer than the eight hours. Mr. Prasad admitted for himself, it took about 22 hours. Commissioner Tobia noted he appreciates the optimism; it looked like it took a lot more than that; it was a very well done report and he appreciates that; he thinks the fiscal impact is off a little bit; the reason he thinks the fiscal impact is off a little bit is there is $150,000 for Code Enforcement employees if the Board goes in that direction, there is roughly $50,000 in software cost, $70,000 in fire protection personnel, and here is where the difference is, $50 was put in there to cover the cost of the software and multiply by that 1,245 estimate, which is merely an estimate; he thinks that is a little bit unreasonable being Rentalscape mentioned that the bulk of those were unlawful; in fact, roughly 1,000 of the 1,247; if they were to take that new lawful group of 237 and multiply that by the $50, that does not get to $50,000, it only gets to about $11,800; and he thinks staff needs to add that $35,000-plus in there, and therefore looking at a recurring cost of about $260,000. He noted he thinks that is a more reasonable estimate; the Board and staff can disagree on policy, but he thinks the numbers should be pretty close; there are lots of moving parts here and as the Board goes through that he just wants to lay his cards on the table so everyone would know where he is while it tries to cobble all of these things together; he thinks the report lays out the decision points, unfortunately they are not binary, therefore, there are many that are different; he will start off with what he does not support and give some reasons, then end up with what he would support; and the Board may not need his vote. He advised he is not going to support a new fee, whether it is $50 to cover or the $220 needed to cover that estimated $50,000 software cost; he thinks that is unreasonable; he is not going to support new regulations; there would be the new imposing regulations on lawfully operating resort dwellings if the Board were to do this; there are certain ones permitted already and this would and this would add new regulations on those; in all honesty, he thinks they are unreasonable regulations; an example would be, as mentioned on page seven of the report on background checks; and he thinks it is unreasonable to have the owner of the Airbnb do a background check on every tenant. He stated he does not know where those background checks would go, or if it would be a level one or two with fingerprinting; so there are a lot of issues with adding those new regulations; the Board has done a noise ordinance very recently; he thinks the Board has done some things to add protections out there; as Commissioner Steele mentioned, there is a lot of scanning that goes on here; that is very Orwellian and it scares him a little bit; and in fact it scares him a lot. He mentioned it is not just the scanning of Airbnb or Expedia, he has looked at news reports and they are scanning social media, Facebook, Tweets, and all this stuff; he does not want to be too much of a Luddite, which he learned from the captain of the Port, but this is a little bit scary; Elon Musk and 27,000 other technologists signed a letter warning of the security concerns and the inaccuracies of Artificial Intelligence (AI); AI systems have been built and they are biased regarding gender and ethnicity; AI systems lead to reductions in data privacy; and hackers can use AI to create more sophisticated attacks. He stated what he and his office did was look at some scenarios where AI was created and then bad things happened, and they found a bunch of them and he can provide some of them: Metropolis, 2001 Space Odyssey, Westworld, Blade Runner, War Games, the Terminator, D.A.R.Y.L., Short Circuit, RoboCop, Short Circuit 2, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, The Matrix, Resident Evil, The Matrix Reloaded, Terminator 3, The Matrix Revolution, IRobot, Stealth, Resident Evil, Meet the Robinson’s, Wall-E, Terminator Salvation, Iron Man 2, TRON Legacy, The Avengers, Prometheus, Resident Evil, Retribution, Total recall, Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Interstellar, Page 16 of 25 October 24, 2023 Transcendence, X Machine, Tomorrowland, Terminator Genesis (AKA Terminator 5), Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, Alien: Covenant, Blade Runner 2049, Terminator: Dark Fate, The Matrix Resurrection, Megan, The Creator, Mission Impossible, Dead Reckoning, Part 2, and he can only assume that Mission Impossible, Dead Reckoning part 2 will also include that, but he is not positive; he knows this is a little bit of a stretch but his office needed a little fun; his point is, he is a little skeptical about AI going through personal, if they limited it just to Airbnb sites or Expedia he could be there, but he does not know how deep these things are going; and that being said, what he does support and where he is willing to go and where he has been willing to go. He continued by saying first of all, proactive reporting of homestead fraud to the Brevard County Property Appraiser moving forward; he thinks the Board needs to do that; he thinks retroactively reporting instances of fraud that are currently happening also have to be done; people that are not paying their fair share, that there is proof of, that needs to be taken care of; the second thing would be the creation of a portal that allows citizens to check whether it is legal or not to operate a resort dwelling on a specific piece of property; in fact he suggested this very thing February 11, 2020; anybody can go back and check the video; and at the time, the Board was unable to move forward due to the resources and aligning the various zoning codes. He stated at the time, there was a number of property owners calling his office and it was extremely difficult to figure out whether it was an allowable use in that particular zoning; his office had called the department and they had trouble looking at that; if staff has trouble figuring that out, he cannot imagine that citizens are not going through that same thing; and he would be more than willing to go through and support an RFP for some sort of software that staff and citizens can identify whether or not it is a permitted use. He added it would be much easier for reporting because if someone had a neighbor that was doing an Airbnb, he or she could plug it in and find out if it was a permitted use and therefore he or she would know if there was a need to report it; it would be a quick measure instead of leaving the onus on the County to do that; those are the two things right now that he would be willing to support; but as far as if it comes with a registration and uses AI to go searching through all these records, there is no way that he could support that; and that is where he is at. He noted he appreciates everyone’s opinion on this, but he just wanted to place his cards on the table as the Board moves forward. Commissioner Steele mentioned he