A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

JULY 30, 2008

The Lake County Board of County Commissioners met in a special Budget Workshop session on Wednesday, July 30, 2008, at 9:00 a.m., in Training Room 233, Lake County Administration Building, Tavares, Florida. Commissioners present at the meeting were: Welton G. Cadwell, Chairman; Jennifer Hill, Vice Chairman; Elaine Renick; and Linda Stewart. Commissioner Debbie Stivender was not present. Others present were Sanford A. “Sandy” Minkoff, County Attorney; Cindy Hall, County Manager; and Susan Boyajan, Deputy Clerk.

COMMUNITY SERVICES

Mr. Fletcher Smith, Community Services Director, referred to a handout that had a summary of some things that their department was doing, as well as ones regarding Children Services funding, Library Services, Public Transportation, and LASER. He related that he had asked his division directors to do a short presentation on various things that they had done during the budget preparation for this fiscal year.

Ms. Deborah Boulware, County Extension Service Director, Agricultural Education Services, commented that they were very fortunate that the seven employees who were jointly funded with the University of Florida survived the UF budget cuts. She pointed out that her division has had some reduction in operating expenses, and the reduction in travel expenses has impacted them, because they had Agricultural Agents who did a lot of onsite visits. She commented that the UF funding for travel had been reduced also, so they were trying to maximize their efforts to seek some outside funding for that. She also commented that the voluntary services of their volunteer who worked in the lobby, their master gardener, and the 4-H volunteers have maximized their services over the years, which allowed them to exist on the scope that they did and to cope with budget reductions. She noted that they had a lot of technologically savvy people who were doing a lot of their educational efforts on the internet, especially for 4-H, which saved traveling and reprographic costs. She reported that the University of Florida provided to all county extension offices a Polycom system, which was used for video conferencing and in-service training. She pointed out that they have noticed that their utility costs for water and power had gone up this year due to increased use of the facility. She concluded by commenting that they were very fortunate to be where they were and thanking the Board for their support over the years.

Mr. Smith stated that they were making some cuts to their programs, and they looked at using the Social Services Needs Assessment which was completed by the University of Central Florida that identified the five top priorities. He related that the number one need and recommendation was to work towards enhancing the public transportation system, which the County had been doing for a number of years. He explained that the second one dealt with trying to provide access to additional health care resources in the County, and he had formerly recommended that they look at focusing the dollars they did have on programs that enhanced health for the citizens of Lake County. He pointed out the spreadsheet which contained the recommendations from the Children’s Services Council, who had reviewed all the grant applications that had been submitted regarding children’s services and ranked those based on what their perceived needs were for the County.

Ms. Allison Thall, Citizen Support Services Manager, commented that she believed that the Children’s Services Council had done a very good job prioritizing how the funding would best be utilized and that they had superior knowledge of the needs of the average children in the community.

Mr. Smith reported that the Human Services Review Committee would be meeting in early August to review the applications for the Human Services grant funding for about $45,000, and they would be bringing those recommendations to the Board. He also noted that they have continued to try to reduce their administrative costs in all programs, such as by not sponsoring the Elder Symposium that they traditionally held in late September.

Commr. Cadwell inquired whether there was enough local sponsorship to hold that event without any public funds.

Ms. Thall commented that their sponsorship levels for that event were down 50 percent last year, and this year would be an even tougher year to secure enough sponsorship from even their historic sponsors. She said they were trying to come up with a way to still put together an event and keep the cost down, such as using the Agricultural Center as a venue rather than Lake Receptions.

Mr. Smith reported that they were reducing the money that they allocated to the Lake County Health Department this coming year, due to savings in utilities, rentals, and leases when they vacated the Mount Dora clinic and opened the Umatilla clinic, which amounted to a reduction of about $118,000 over the budget year. He stated that they provided operational funding to the Health Department this year in the amount of $398,000, and that the Health Department worked with the County through the CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) program and the Prescription Medication program, by providing inexpensive prescriptions for $7.00 each. He stated that unfortunately their across-the-board funding reductions involved an additional cut for LifeStream of $107,600, leaving an allocation of $968,000 this year, but they were working with them to find and obtain some additional Medicaid dollars. He also specified that LifeStream’s state grant was about $6.5 million, and the money the County provides to them helps them make some of their 25 percent match requirement, with the rest coming from contributions from other agencies and some other types of revenue. They were also recommending that they reduce the amount of the Non-Ad Valorem Fire and Solid Waste assessment assistance program by 50 percent, but the majority of the people assisted by that program were the elderly who lived on extremely low fixed incomes. He reported that the other reduction was the Active Military Combat Duty Reimbursement which was offered through Veteran Services by 50 percent.

Mr. Tony Deaton, Probation Director, stated that their mission was to enhance public safety through excellence in offender supervision. He related that they obtained misdemeanor cases and offenders through the county court system and received a case every hour of their working year of a new offender starting the probation program. He reported that they have 13 staff members, 7 of whom were probation officers, who supervise about 1242 offenders and that they were averaging about 180 offenders per officer. One of their goals was to be a self-sustaining probation agency by collecting supervision fees to offset their operating expenditures. He mentioned that on October 1, 2007, they raised their supervision fees by 5 percent to try to cover their increase in expenditures for personnel costs. He also mentioned that in their upcoming budget, they have decreased their operating expenses by 21 percent, including reductions in travel, per diem, and the capacity of their electronic monitoring program to 28 offenders at any given time, since they were currently operating below that capacity and they only paid for the units that were in use. He added that every month they enforce the completion of over 1,000 hours of community service by offenders to restore the communities they offended and collect over $6,000 in restitution, which was disbursed to the crime victims. He mentioned that the Teen Court program was very successful and had a dedicated funding source to keep it fully funded through collection of fees. They have increased their collaboration with other agencies to connect their offenders to needed services for mental health, substance abuse, education, housing, and employment. He noted that more than two-thirds of their offenders successfully completed probation.

Mr. Smith stated that in his recommendation and his communications with Mr. Michael Tart, Executive Director of LASER (Lake and Sumter Emergency Recovery), he acknowledged what an important role LASER plays in the community after a disaster, but based on the funding they had and anticipated budget cuts, he was not going to recommend funding for LASER this coming year. He emphasized that that did not mean that the program was not needed, since the County needed some type of structure and organization in the community that could respond very quickly when there was a disaster. He added that LASER was able to communicate and have continuing contact with the groups that came in, especially those from outside the county, throughout the year to coordinate what needed to be done such as documenting who was there and who was not supposed to be there efficiently.

Commr. Cadwell commented that it was frustrating that government was limited in what they were able to do during and after an emergency. He directed for them to go back and try to find some funding for that group.

Mr. Smith mentioned that LASER also got some grants from the state and federal government as well as from some of the faith-based organizations. He also stated that LASER has asked for funding from most of the municipalities in Lake County.

Commr. Cadwell stated that Mr. Smith would try to see what monies the County could come up with to help LASER from any unexpended funds from that grant program. He also asked Mr. Tart to provide the Board with a listing of their other funding.

Mr. Tart informed the Board that they have received a commitment for funding from the City of Eustis, but they were still waiting to hear how much that would be. He assured the Board that they were soliciting other agencies and federal and state grants. He reported that this year they would be focusing on sustainability efforts.

LIBRARY SERVICES

Ms. Wendy Breeden, Library Services Director, related that this year they recommended that the member libraries would receive almost 11 percent less than their formula reimbursement amount, which would result in a savings of about $150,000. She also mentioned that over the past two years they have cut about $215,000 out of the libraries’ operating budgets, resulting in a bare-bones budget. They also would be foregoing the annual in-service training day, and they have greatly reduced the number of promotional items. She referred to the handout which contained a revised operating hours schedule and noted that they were recommending a reduction to the hours in Astor and East Lake as well as a cut of a full-time position. Also, Leesburg would be closing on Fridays and Sundays, with shorter hours during the week, and they were losing five staff members. However, she reported that Cooper Memorial Library would open a half hour earlier each day. She pointed out that State aid, which was continuing to decline, affected a lot of what they did, such as the discontinuation of downloadable audio books. She reported that the Cooper Memorial Library project was moving forward and should be completed next fiscal year. She mentioned that the Board recently gave approval for the upgrade of the library automation system, which would probably happen the beginning of next year and was budgeted from grant funds that they have held back. She reported that Polk and Osceola Counties planned to continue funding of the Cagan Crossings Library. She also informed the Board that next year they possibly would be coming forward with a proposal to start a library foundation, which would help them to fund library programs system-wide and act as a conduit for some grants with agencies that required them to be a 501(c)(3). They would be continuing the Festival of Reading with the assistance of sponsorships and state aid, and next year’s theme would be Fantastic Florida. She noted that library use was greatly increasing, and they were anticipating that their circulation would exceed 2 million this year. She reported that there had been a request from the City of Howey-in-the-Hills and the City of Minneola to add their libraries to the Library System, and pointed out a handout showing five options to do that and the costs involved, which ranged from $91,469 for full funding to $28,000 with no County reimbursement. She then showed on a chart the value of the Lake County Library System’s different services to the member libraries.

Commr. Hill inquired whether the County would get reimbursed more from State aid if they included those as member libraries.

Ms. Breeden stated that they would get reimbursed a little more, which would be about 3 percent.

Commr. Cadwell commented that realistically, they currently would only be able to consider Options 4 to get those libraries into the system.

Ms. Hall stated that they would go back and see what alternatives they could come up with for funding.

Commr. Hill commented that Option 4 was hopefully realistic, but she would like for those libraries to be funded at the Option 3 level next year.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Mr. Ken Harley, Public Transportation Director, mentioned that they have been extremely grateful for the funding levels the County has contributed to this program over the years. He reported that last year they received $2.6 million from the general fund, and this year there would be an $899,000 reduction overall in the program. In spite of that reduction, however, they would still be able to provide the level of service they were currently providing and even be able to expand the service to implement a route from Umatilla to Zellwood in July of 2009. He explained that one of the ways they were able to accomplish that is by renegotiating their contract with MV and having the County assuming maintenance of the vehicles, which would reduce their trip rate down from $20.43 per trip for the paratransit to $16.75 and reduce the fixed route rate from $53.58 per hour to $37.70. He stated that they also would be able to increase their marketing efforts for the fixed-route service to bring in increased ridership and fair box revenues, and they also would be moving more people from the more expensive paratransit service to the more cost efficient fixed-route service. They will be continuing to provide the Paisley route, and they were looking at providing shelters in some of the fixed-route areas at some transfer points and major stops. He opined that the fixed-route was going extremely well, and their highest ridership was 706 trips on July 25. He mentioned that he previously spoke about reducing the South Lake Express, Route 204, from five trips to two trips in the morning and afternoon, but asked if he could reconsider that to change it to three trips to keep the headway rate reasonable, because he has recently seen a substantial increase in ridership in that route. He commented that they could still do that within the parameters of their budget, but they would just need to shift some money from paratransit to the Lynx service. He noted that none of their five staff positions could be cut, due to a lot of intensive work connected with the federal regulations that had to be followed, such as the National Transit Data Base report and ride checks on the buses. He was excited about the implementation of the Altoona to Umatilla route that would connect with Lynx in Plymouth next year. They were also looking at doing some marketing with Brighthouse on the Comcast stations to make citizens aware of this program as well as sending an employee out to visit some of the businesses along the fixed route to provide information and increase awareness of the service. He stated that they were going to start soliciting advertisers on their brochures and schedules to defray some of the costs of those items, and the contract to advertise on buses would be coming before the Board very shortly.

Mr. Smith stated that virtually all of Housing and Community Development’s programs were funded through the Community Development Block Grant Program, the SHIP (State Housing Initiatives Partnership) trust fund, or the Section 8 Housing funding they get from HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development), but they strive to make sure that they maintain their costs in those areas and to continue to provide high levels of service. He introduced Mr. Dale Greiner, who would be interim director of this division until they could advertise to replace Ms. Liz Eginton, who recently retired.

RECESS AND REASSEMBLY

The Chairman announced that there would be a fifteen-minute recess at 10:10 a.m.

FLEET MANAGEMENT

Mr. Barnett Schwartzman explained that the Fleet Management Division came to be under the Procurement Services Department in February, based on functional requirements and some functional similarities in operations, and they were in the process of instituting a few initiatives. He related that the first part of the presentation would address specific actions that were currently happening, and then they would give some detailed budget number presentations before finally addressing one major initiative in more detail that was touched on previously.

Mr. Dave Vasquez, Division Fleet Manager, commented that the move to the Procurement Department has resulted in a very positive impact for Fleet Management, and since all of their customers were centrally located in the Administration Building, it was much easier to work with the Finance and Budget Departments without the need for extensive travel. He related that they were trying to establish a more unified Fleet operation and to bring all of their assets under a better control system, and being under Procurement allowed them to have a better line of connection with specifications, ordering, and pricing vehicles. He also noted that the overall control of the assets with regard to disposal was also handled within Procurement. He emphasized that they have also reduced the size of the fleet through reallocation of resources, leaving four vehicles to be allocated as Pool vehicles out of the Administration Building that could be signed out when needed. They would possibly be assuming the maintenance for all of the County bus operations and were working toward moving to a newer, more modern facility on Highway 27. He also pointed out that if they assumed the bus maintenance, they would be filling three vacant positions that were currently left vacant. He reported that the increase to cover bus repair and maintenance would be $295,000, which would cover tires, parts, and any of the support services, and there would be an additional cost of $89,000 to cover lease, utilities, and overhead on the new building. He emphasized that these additional costs would be offset by reduced rates paid to MV.

Mr. Vasquez stated that the budget that they requested going forward, being an enterprise and internal service fund, was $3.8 million and that $2.1 million of that was for fuel, which was 56 percent of the total. He commented that fuel prices have changed greatly this past year, and they were looking at increasing their fuel budget next year by $438,000, which represented about 25 percent. He noted that fuel was starting to go back down to a more realistic level, but that it was not known what the price would be in the future. He reported, however, that they were projecting a 20 percent net reduction of fuel used through county facilities due to a deliberate decrease of use of the vehicles and a switchover to the use of the Comdata State fuel card. He was confident that they would be covered for any fuel escalation going forward. He emphasized that all vehicle use was for required County business, even though a few years ago that was not the case, and currently there were just a handful of employees in the County that were assigned take-home vehicles.

Mr. Schwartzman added that they were getting ready to re-bid their fuel contract, and this year they were going to join with the School Board and other entities so that it was an overall county government contract, which they hoped would give them lower pricing due to increased quantities.

Mr. Vasquez explained that the proposed building they were looking at had a good location on Highway 27 just south of Leesburg in the main corridor between the Clermont and Leesburg areas, which was more centrally located for part suppliers and customer support. He noted that MV was looking at allowing a park and ride at that location. He stated that this was pending approval and the negotiations with the current owner of the building. He showed a slide of the existing garage, which he noted was assembled sometime before 1967 from an old barn and was in dire need of structural repairs. He explained that if they took on the maintenance of the bus fleet, there would be a total of 84 vehicles and that the increased billable hours would lower the overall hourly rate, resulting in potential savings of over $200,000. He also pointed out that the new building would provide for a more modern Fleet facility that was larger, more functional and more centrally located. He noted that the building they were looking at had been an international dealership at one time and that it had pits in the floor, 16 drive-through stalls, air supply, solid concrete floors, overhead, and offices. He reported that they were planning on building some offices for MV and TD (Transportation Disadvantaged) there as well as using some of the space for a parts area.

ENVIRONMENTAL UTILITIES

Mr. Daryl Smith, Director of the Department of Environmental Utilities, reported that their Solid Waste Operations Division was involved in the landfill operations, the yard waste processing activities, the drop off centers for solid waste, and their scale house where the solid waste that comes into their system was measured; and their Solid Waste programs included their recycling activities, solid waste collection services, and household hazardous waste service. He stated that their Water Quality Services Division was responsible for the storage tank inspection program, small quantity generator inspection program, water lab, and managing contaminated sites that the County was responsible for monitoring. He reported that they were recommending no changes in the services that they have been providing, and their budget reflected a roughly 5 percent reduction from prior years. He noted that they have eliminated two positions for an equipment operator and an assistant director, with a possibility of the elimination of another position in the future. He talked about a process they used called Innovation Service Improvements and Productivity Improvements (ISIPI), which focused on having everyone in the department make improvements and look for innovations to do things differently and in a better way, which allowed them to hold the line on their budget and continue to expand their services. One example he gave of this was the change they made in their scale house monitoring activities from having only one person who could get specific information from their system for their customers to making major changes to the way they accounted for everything. This allowed them, with the help of the Information Technology Department, to continue to use the same software by using a new Microsoft product which made using the system much quicker, easier, user friendly and efficient, which freed up the employee’s time and allowed him to be able to help in other areas. He also mentioned that they consolidated the two sections that were responsible for the petroleum storage tank program and the small quantity generator inspection program, so that the storage tank personnel were now responsible for the household hazardous waste program as well. He reported that they used cross training for an individual to help them out in the lab to be able to free up some time to implement their Adopt-a-Lake Program this year. He also mentioned that they have made effective use of volunteers in both the field and the lab to help to make that program work.

Regarding their Mosquito Control and Aquatic Plant Management Division, Mr. Smith noted that two years ago, they had a very significant Hydrilla problem in the County, and they took a fairly unusual approach to eradicate that. He specified that in the past 12 months, they have treated about 200 acres of Hydrilla, in contrast to about 2,000 acres of Hydrilla that they treated during the year prior to that. He explained this approach had significantly reduced the amount of Hydrilla that they had to currently manage, and they have focused on inspections of any place where there was Hydrilla present, to get to it very quickly and eradicate it before it grew to a larger amount. He pointed out that the State provided them with $1.5 million in funding for chemicals two years ago, but this year the cost for the chemicals was only $150,000 to $200,000. They have also now taken on the responsibility for Alexander Springs, which was previously being unsatisfactorily managed by a State agency, and they were almost done cleaning that area up after working diligently this year to do that. He related that they have accomplished the renovations of some of their drop-off centers in-house by working closely with Public Works to make that happen. They were planning to expand their recycling efforts next year and were bidding on some equipment to be able to separate the co-mingled material as well as planning to purchase other equipment next year, such as a front-end loader vehicle and containers, to service the smaller operations. He reported that the markets for recycling were good, they were making a good profit at this time, and they hoped to be able to continue to do that. He stated that next week they were going to discuss with the Board the expansion of their curbside recycling program to include cardboard and the mandatory separation of recyclables. They were also planning to start a paint recycling program within the next couple of weeks and a re-use center. He reported that they were moving forward with the construction of their two new landfills, and he believed that those landfills would be available the first part of next year, even though he was not sure they would be receiving enough solid waste to start using those at that time. His department was working at getting enough solid waste to come into the system to supplement the reductions they currently had and to have enough to be able to meet their obligation to sell electricity to Progress Energy, because if they jeopardized their ability to meet that obligation, it would have a fairly significant financial impact.

He reported that when they started out in 2002-2003, they were paying an annual collection cost of roughly $105, and since that time, they have incorporated into the agreements a refuse rate index which automatically increases the amount the franchise collectors are paid on an annual basis to help make up any increases in the cost of fuel, employee personnel costs, and other things. He pointed out on the overhead chart that over the last six years, the County’s actual annual cost had gone from $105 to $140, but the assessment that they have charged their customers has essentially stayed the same, even though they have had to absorb the increase in the collection services. He believed that raising the rate to $184 would be a step closer to the actual cost of the service, and without the increase, they would virtually eliminate their reserves by the end of next year. He also wanted the Board to consider the possibility of an automatic increase in the assessment based on the changes in the refuse rate index to avoid the necessity of larger increases in the future. He concluded by stating that he would appreciate the Board’s consideration and approval of a rate increase to $184 at this point in time.

Commr. Hill asked how many households this represented.

Mr. Smith answered that it represented about 65,000 households, which would result in a $650,000 difference in their revenues.

Commr. Hill inquired how much they anticipated receiving in electric revenue from Progress Energy.

Mr. Smith responded that he believed it was about between $7 million and $8 million. He explained that there were two payments on the electrical side, one was capacity payment and one was for electricity generated, and because of the increases that they had annually on the capacity payment, they anticipated that overall the budget that they had for Covanta would go down about $400,000 to $500,000 because of the increases in the electrical payments. There was discussion about Mr. Smith looking into the possibility of getting other counties and municipalities to use Lake County’s solid waste facilities, and he assured Commr. Hill that he would contact the City of Wildwood, which was expecting extensive growth, about that.

Commr. Renick commented that even with a $10 increase in the solid waste assessment, people would still see a reduction in their taxes, and she thought that residents who lived within city limits were paying a lot more and subsidizing the fees charged to unincorporated residents.

Mr. Smith explained that it was being subsidized to a certain extent, because they subsidized their disposal costs, which some cities used and some did not. He further explained that cities such as Clermont that used the County’s system benefited from that subsidy for their disposal costs, but cities that did not use their system did not benefit, even though they paid it. He pointed out that the rate charged to County residents was probably the lowest in the area, with everyone else being over $200, and there was a significant difference between what their customers were paying versus what other municipalities were charging.

OTHER BUSINESS

COUNTY ATTORNEY

ST. JOHNS DECISION REGARDING NIAGARA

Mr. Sandy Minkoff, County Attorney, informed the Board that they had contacted all the city attorneys and the Water Authority, as directed by the Board, as to how they should proceed regarding the Niagara application, and they have also had a phone conference with outside counsel. He thought that legally the best way to challenge the permit was to request an administrative hearing and to target what they wanted to challenge by mostly looking at whether or not this permit met the public interest and not necessarily targeting a broad range of environmental issues. He reported that the estimate from the outside counsel was $200,000 to do that, and he commented that his experience of legal estimates at the outset of a case were that usually they were too conservative and that it could be double that much. He also related that counsel thought that they likely would have a hard time winning at the district and would probably have to appeal to a District Court of Appeal. He mentioned that Marion County had a fairly similar case that has already gone through this process and was currently on appeal. He believed that some of the cities were interested in participating with them, but they were facing the same kind of financial issues the County was. He stated that the question that came up was whether the Board would want to contest it, and if so, would the County be a participant of substantial measure. He added that most of the cost would be from the administrative hearing process, and the appellate case would probably be a much smaller additional amount.

Commr. Renick commented that the time to re-evaluate their course of action would be when they found out what the decision was for Marion County.

Mr. Minkoff responded that they did not know that decision at this time and that appellate courts worked on their own timetable. He also explained that if they became part of the litigation, they could have closed sessions with outside counsel to discuss where they were and the direction they wanted to go, and there were always opportunities to try to resolve matters short of going to full trials or full appeals.

Commr. Hill asked whether filing for an administrative hearing would delay Niagara’s receiving the permit.

Mr. Minkoff stated that it would delay that, and if they wanted to challenge, they should do it fairly early so that the citizens would know not to go to the hearing on August 12, because if there was a challenge, there would not be a hearing on that day. He also mentioned that even if they lost the Administrative Law Judge hearing, the district would still have to have the public hearing, but it would be six months or a year from now.

Commr. Renick stated that she was surprised about the amount of support she had received in hundreds of e-mails from Lake County citizens throughout the county regarding the possibility of challenging the Niagara decision. She pointed out that if they did not file for an administrative hearing, then the permit would be granted, and she noted that the Board would have opportunities in the future to re-evaluate their decision depending on future developments.

On a motion by Commr. Hill, seconded by Commr. Renick, and carried unanimously by a vote of 4-0, the Board moved to put this item regarding the challenge of the St. John’s decision regarding Niagara on the Agenda.

Commr. Hill commented that she believed that challenging the decision was morally what the County’s citizens wanted them to do.

Commr. Renick added that the St. Johns was also being challenged on other issues, including surface water, and this would make the point that there were many things that have to be changed.

On a motion by Renick, seconded by Commr. Stewart and carried unanimously by a vote of 4-0, the Board moved to challenge the decision of the St. Johns River Water Management District regarding Niagara Bottling, LLC and to have Mr. Minkoff discuss with the cities their possible participation in that.

ALL STAR SPORTS CAMP PERMITS

Mr. Minkoff informed the Board that there was an amenity in the Paisley area called All Star Sports Camp which brought high school and professional athletes in to form football and baseball teams, and it had developed a very large facility without any permits or appropriate zoning, including substantial buildings for housing the players. He opined that he thought it was due to an inadvertent mistake and mentioned that the facility had future camp events and activities scheduled. He related that because it would require a zoning change, the facility would be a minimum of three months away from acquiring all legal permits and zoning approvals. He reported that the Growth Management staff has suggested that the County work with the sports camp to allow them to continue to operate while they went through the permitting processes, as long as they determine that they met basic life-safety codes. He wanted to make sure the Board was comfortable with that approach. He also mentioned that the Code Enforcement process regularly allowed for people to continue operating while they cured their problem.

Commr. Cadwell commented that this was not complaint-generated since there were no neighbors close by, but it was brought to their attention through the Property Appraiser’s Office, who went out to re-appraise the property. He also pointed out that the facility has been doing good things in the community, such as offering free clinics and visiting high schools.

Mr. Minkoff added that the facility was out there for about a year to a year and a half and that it was a very expensive facility.

Commr. Cadwell stated that the direction they were going sounded alright to him. The Board gave consensus for that course of action.

Mr. Dale Greiner, Building Services Director, Growth Management, commented that he wanted to do enough due diligence out there to be able to make an informed decision that the life-safety issues were covered, including fire sprinklers and the pressure in that system, electrical, and the structural portion itself.

Mr. Minkoff also commented that the applicant would be paying a substantial penalty, and the cost of getting that permit would be dramatically higher than what it would have been had he been permitted in the beginning.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business to be brought to the attention of the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 11:25 a.m.

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WELTON CADWELL, CHAIRMAN

ATTEST:

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NEIL KELLY, CLERK