Meeting Transcript Provided By Public Resources fileMeeting Transcript Provided By Public Resources May 20, ... We Thank You For This Day. ... It's The Men And Women That Deserve This

Meeting Transcript Provided By Public Resources

May 20, 2008

Chairman Judah: The Board Of County Commission Meeting Of May 20. We Thank Everyone That's In Attendance And Those Listening And Watching In. We're Start With Pastor Thomas Winn, Church Of God. Good Morning, Pastor. Good Morning. Let Us Bow Our Heads. Heavenly Father, We Thank You For This Day. Lord, We Thank You For The County Commissioners Office And This Building. We Ask You For Each And Every One The Lord To Anoint In The Name Of Jesus Christ. Lord, You Say The Prayers Of The Righteous. I Believe This Morning I Am A Righteous Man. I Believe This Crowd Will Be Manifest. We Ask You To Lift Up This Office, The County Commissioner Up. Lord, Anoint Each And Every One That's Employed Here, Heavenly Father. We Ask You In The Name Of Jesus Christ To Give Him Love, Peace, Joy And Understanding. Lord, We Ask You In The Name Of Jesus Christ To Do This. Lord, We Ask You. We Know Prayer Works. We Thank You In Jesus's Name. Let Us All Say Amen. Chairman Judah: Thank You, Pastor.

1 This transcript is actually a copy of the live closed captioning text that was broadcast at the meeting and to be used as a reference only.

Lee County is not responsible for content or any errors contained within. For the official minutes of this meeting visit the Clerk of Courts Minutes Department at http://minutes.leeclerk.org/



[Together] I Pledge Allegiance To The Flag Of The United States Of America And To The Republic For Which It Stands One Nation Under God Indivisible With Liberty And Justice For All. Chairman Judah: Thank You, Pastor. All Right. Chairman Judah: All Right. We'll Go On With The Ceremonial Presentations. I Believe Commissioner Janes Concerning Emergency Medical Services Week. Yes. Nice To See You People Today. I'm Particularly Pleased To Present This Resolution Today. It's E.M.S. Week And Our E.M.S. Team Is Probably One Of The Best I Have Run Into. Amen. Sorry. The Preacher Got Me In The Mood. O.K. This Is Really A Fine Group We Have Here. They Have Excellent Work Done In The Community. Whereas The Emergency Medical Services Is A Vital Public Service And Whereas The Members Of Emergency Medical Services Teams Are Ready To Provide Life-Saving Care To Those In Need 24 Hours A Day, Seven Days A Week And Whereas Access To Quality Community Care Dramatically Improves The Survival And Recovery Rate Of Those Who Experience Sudden Illness Or Injury And Whereas It Concerns Emergency Medical Service Technicians, Firefighters, Educators, Paramedics, And Others And Whereas The Members Of The Teams Engage In Thousands Of Hours Of Specialized Training And Continuing Ed To Enhance Their Life-Saving Skills And Whereas It Is Appropriate To Recognize The Value And The Accomplishments Of Emergency Medical Services Providers By Designating Emergency Medical Services Week. Now Therefore Be It Resolved By The Board Of County Commissioners Of Lee County Florida We Proclaim May 18 Through 24, 2008 As Emergency Medical Services Week With The Theme "E.M.S. Your Life Is Our Mission".



We Encourage The Community To Observe The Week With Appropriate Programs, Ceremonies And Activities. This Resolution Was Signed By Chairman Judah. I'd Like To Present This To You If I Could. [Applause] Chairman Judah: Richard, Kim, If You Could Step Forward. First Of All, Thank You For The Recognition Of Our Employees. That's Where The Rubber Hits The Road. Every Day We Ran Roughly 75,000 Calls Last Year And They Answered Every One -- Every Call They Could And They Have Done A Wonderful Job. Support From The Board, County Admin Over The Years. I Have Been Here 34 Years And Y'all Have Always Been Supportive. I Appreciate It. It's The Men And Women That Deserve This. Chairman Judah: Richard Kim, If You Could Stay There. There Is No Question The Board Is Proud Of The Men And Women Of E.M.S. I Would Ask That Charles Stiles Coalition Volunteer Along With Dana Kinnard Could Step Forward Because They Want To Make A Presentation To All Of You At E.M.S. Good Morning. Good Morning, Sir. [Low Voices] Deep Appreciation For Everything You Have Done. I Never Want To Be A Part -- Of -- [Laughter] Thank You. [Applause] Chairman Judah: Mr. Stiles, If The Three Of You Could Come Back Up, I Thank You For Much. Very Thoughtful. Thank You Very Much.



Chairman Judah: Give Us A Count Of Three Because There's Some Blocking Going On Here. You Let Me Know. One, Two, Three. Too Quick. Three, Two, One. Thank You. Chairman Judah: Anything Else? Thank You Very Much. Appreciate It. Thank You, Richard, Kim. We Have Another Ceremonial Resolution. At This Point I Would Like To Ask Olga Beckworth To Come Forward. It's Great To See You This Morning. It's A Pleasure. You Have Really Brought New Meaning To Grandparents In Many Instances Grandparents Are Starting To Have To Resurrect Their Roles As Parents In Many Instances For Children Who Wouldn't Otherwise Have The Appropriate Guidance From Their Parents. They Have The Grandparents To Step In And Provide The Family Structure, The Love And Nurturing. We Thank You So Much For What You Do In Recognizing Grandparents Throughout The Community. You Have A Wonderful Recognition Ceremony For Selecting Grandparent Of The Year. We're Here To Be Part Of The Recognition This Morning. Whereas Fanny Hall -- And It's Good To Have You Here This Morning -- Has Been Selected As Grandparent Of The Year By On Organization Whose Mission Is To Help Grand Parents Who Find Themselves In Unexpected Positions Of Returning To Parenting. Whereas Fanny Has Six Grandchildren, Nine Great-Grandchildren And Grand God Mother Of One. She Helps Each And Every Child Feel Special.



Her House Is A House Where They Come Every Day And Her Home Is Filled With Snacks With The Grand Kids To Eat Upon Their Arrival. Whereas Her House Is Filled With Love, Warmth And Spiritual Guidance. The Children Are Well Versed On The Word Of God Through Her Teachings And The Spiritual Songs She Sings. She Has A History Of Caring For Others. She Was An Employee Of The State Of Florida Where She Cared For Disabled Citizens Of The Community And Now Serves As A Caregiver For Her Mother And Other Members Of Her Church Family. She's An Anointed Woman Of God And She Is The Woman To Call Upon. Everyone Knows She'll Get The Job Done. Her Grandson Stated In The Nomination, When I Think Of The Love She Has For Family And Friends, The Scripture, Love Ye One Another As I Have Loved You Coming To Mind. The Board Would Like To Take This Opportunity To Recognize Mrs. Hall For The Unselfish Love And Steadfast Commitment To Her Family And Community Which Have Earned Her The Beckworth Foundation Grandparent Of The Year Award For 2008. I Was Proud To Sign This Resolution. [Applause] Congratulations. Thank You. While We're Getting Ready For The Picture Here, I Just Want To Say That She Is A Grand Parent And A Grand Singer, Too. She Sings With A Group Called The Spiritual Voices. On Many Occasions They Have Appeared At My Church Downtown And I Have Had The Pleasure Of Singing Along With Them. This Woman Does It All. It's An Honor To Have Her Here Today. Thank You. Chairman Judah: Thank You, Commissioner Mann.



Chairman Judah: I Know We Have A Hand Held Mic -- She's Got It. I Would Like To Say Thank You. Especially Commissioner Judah. You Got Me Started On My Way. If It Wasn't For You, I Don't Know What I Would Have Done. You Opened Doors I Knew Wasn't Going To Open For Us. You Did It. I Want To Thank You For Being Who You Are And Giving Us The Opportunity. I Just Thank God For You. Y'all Keep On Doing. All Right. Mrs. Hall, Ms. Beckworth, You Are Wonderful Ambassadors To The Community. Do You Want To Say Something? Amen. I Just Want To Thank God. Thank You For This Moment. I Truly Appreciate Mrs. Beckworth Which Is Truly A Friend To Me. And I Thank God For Her. I'd Just Like To Say A Little Something In A Song -- Not A Whole Song Now. Amen. \M\M God Is Good \M \M God Is Good \M \M O God \M \M Is Good \M \M God Is Good \M \M O He Woke Me Up \M \M This Morning \M \M And He Started Me \M \M On My Way \M \M I Know God \M \M Is Good \M \M God Is Good \M Thank You! [Applause] All Right!



Chairman Judah: Thank You, Ladies. That's A Great Way To Get Started On The Day. That's The Type Of Invocation I Like. Amen One More Time. Chairman Judah: Evidently There's Nothing On The Recap Which Is Noteworthy. We'll Go To Public Comment On The Consent Administrative Agenda. I Don't Have Any Cards. If Anyone Wishes To Comment On The Consent Administrative Agenda. Everyone Knows We Are Having A Public Meeting This Morning, Right? The Agenda Is Limited, I Notice. Chairman Judah: It Is Very Limited. We'll Move On To The Consent Agenda. Commissioner Bigelow? Comm. Bigelow: Thank You, Chairman Judah. I Have Two -- 9-A And 14-A. Chairman Judah: O.K. Commissioner Mann? Comm. Mann: 8-A. Chairman Judah: O.K. Anything Else? Comm. Mann: Nope. Chairman Judah: Commissioner Janes? Comm. Janes: None, Mr. Chairman. Chairman Judah: Commissioner Hall? Comm. Hall: 9-A Also. Chairman Judah: And 9-B For Me. Seconded By Commissioner Hall. Discussion, Objection?



Motion Pass. Commissioner Bigelow, 9-A. Comm. Bigelow: Thank You. This Is The Request To, I Guess, Bless The West Coast Inland Navigation District's Grant Funding Priority Listing. Did I Get It Fairly Correct? That's Correct. Chris Capforth, Natural Resources. Comm. Bigelow: Thanks, Chris. As I Went Over It, First Of All, There's Not Much Back Here To Help Me Understand Why, You Know, This Priority Was Decided. I Did Get An E-Mail From A Gentleman Named Chris Smith Which Caused Me To Look At This More Closely -- Or Attempted To. I'm Not Sure Exactly What He's Referring To When He Says That Lack Of Universal Involvement In Planning This Permit Publication Serves To Advance Political Beliefs And Stature. Is He Referring To The First Priority Navigation Improvements, Do You Think? No? I Don't Believe So. I'm Not Sure What He's Referring To. There Is Not A Permitting Involved With This. It's Just A Grant Application. Comm. Bigelow: Can You Maybe Go Through The First Priority Here -- Navigation Improvements For Fiscal Year 2009 To The Tune Of $750,000 And Help Me Understand At Least That One A Little Bit Better? That Project Is A County Project Where We Utilize Those Funds To Perform A Variety Of Navigation Improvement Projects Such As Dredging Public Navigation Channels Maintenance Of Buoys And Signage, Manatee Speed Zone Maintenance, That Type Of Thing. Comm. Bigelow: All It Says In The Back Is Projects To Improve Navigation Conditions. Does It Have Anything To Do With Pole And Troll Zones?



No, It Does Not. Comm. Bigelow: What Is That In Reference To? I Would Assume It's In Reference To A Notice General Permit That The West Coast Inland Navigation District Is Attempting To Obtain From Dep. Comm. Bigelow: O.K. It's A Different Matter Altogether. Comm. Bigelow: Appreciate That. O.K. Also In Here Is Other Nominated Items That Didn't Make It On The Priority Listing Of 15 Projects That Would Be Considered For Funding. The One That Stands Out For Me The Most Is That We Have Not Taken This Opportunity To Fund More Enforcement -- Law Enforcement Personnel For The Waters And I Guess That Would Be My Preference In This Particular Request Before Us That We Give Some Greater Priority To That. I Know I Have -- This Went Through The Waterways Advisory Committee, Correct? That Is Correct. Comm. Bigelow: So I Would Probably Need To Look At Point B For -- Well, The Navigation Improvement District's Bylaws Limit Us To 25% Of The Total Award That We Can Afford To Go Towards Law Enforcement. So We're Capped To A Certain Amount. That's As High As We Can Go Every Year. So We Actually Capped Out As Far As Funding The Law Enforcement Applications. We Did Have To Make Cuts To The Applications That Came In Because We Just Couldn't Give Them The Money That We Wanted To. Comm. Bigelow: O.K. In Light Of That -- And This Will Be Ending Here Soon, Chairman Judah. Number Three, Four And Five On The Priority List All Refers To Law Enforcement. Marine Law Enforcement Fiscal Year 2009, Half A Million Or More. Deputy Of $77,000. Can You Elaborate On Those?



Who This Law Enforcement Deputy -- Is That A Sheriff Deputy? It Is. We Have An Agreement With The Sheriff's Office To Fund A Position That Will Focus Primarily On Items That Division Of Natural Resources See As A Priority Such As Abandoned Vessel Removal, Derelict Vessel Removal, Manatee Speed Zone Enforcement. Comm. Bigelow: Good, Good. And Half A Million Dollar Price Tag Here On The Marine Law Enforcement For Fiscal Year 2009, What Does That Cover? That Money Goes To The Sheriff's Office As Well As The Other Municipalities That Did Apply. Comm. Bigelow: There Were Several. Sanibel, Fort Myers, Cape Coral. They Are All Getting Funding To A Certain Amount, Yeah. Comm. Bigelow: That's Priority Number Four? Yes. Comm. Bigelow: Thank You, Chris. I Will Move The Item. Chairman Judah: Motion By Commissioner Bigelow To Move Item 9-A. Second By Commissioner Mann. Discussion? Tammy? Commissioner Hall? Comm. Hall: Thank You. What's Our Time Frame For The Review And Acknowledgment Of What Our Grant Will Actually Be? The District Is Actually Awaiting, As We All Are, The Estimate Of How Much Money They Will Actually Be Receiving This Year. So We're Unsure At This Point Exactly How Much We're Going To Be Getting Back From The District. Once We Know That, We'll Be Going To Them With This Resolution And Getting Their Approvals In June. The Funding Cycle Begins October 1 Of This Year. Comm. Hall: We'll Be Notified Of What Our Funding Will Be Sometime In June Or July?



That's What We're Anticipating, Yes. Comm. Hall: Thank You Very Much. I Appreciate It. Chairman Judah: Any Further Decision? Any Objection? Motion Passes. Commissioner Bigelow, I Think You Had Another Item There. 14-A. Comm. Bigelow: Thank You. This Is Simply One Of Those -- 14-A. Let Me Turn To It. Sorry. Wrong Page. The Selection Committees That, Again, I Object To. Comm. Hall: Move The Item. Chairman Judah: Moved, Seconded. Motion Passes 4-1. Commissioner Bigelow Dissenting. We'll Move On To Commissioner Mann. 8-A. Comm. Mann: I Think We Are All Aware Of What This Issue Is. I Wanted To Encourage Mr. Mire To Do What He's Probably Going To Do In The Light Of Bonita Springs City Council Voting To Participate In Maintaining The Route 150 As The One I Particularly Have In Mind. I Just -- When You Bring This Back To The Public Hearing, I Just Need As Much Background As We Can Of The Number Of People Over The Last Year. Cost Per Passenger, Alternatives Available To These People If We Were To Shut This Down.



It's A Sensitive Issue Particularly With Cost Of Fuel -- Gasoline Going Up. It's Affecting Us But Also Alternative Choices. Now There Is A Little Focus With Bonita Acting The Way They Are. That's All. No Response Required Here. I Will Move The Item. Chairman Judah: You Meant Responding The Way They Are. Comm. Mann: Yes. Chairman Judah: Thank You. Discussion? Commissioner Janes? Comm. Janes: I Just Want To Ask About Route 160. Yes, Commissioner. As You Know In Past Years -- Steve Myers, For The Record Bay The Way, Transit Director. We Have Approached The Budget Requirements In A Slightly Different Way Than This Year. In The Past, We Typically Would Look At -- We Would Start By Looking At Where Is The Lowest Utilization Route In The System And Go Down The List. This Year We Took A Different Approach Knowing That Those Types Of Eliminations Weren't Going To Be Sufficient To Garner The Kind Of Savings That We Were -- Need In Order To Stay At The Same Budget As Last Year. We Took An Approach Where We Basically Said Let's Go After Areas Where We Think We Can Affect Services Without Affecting People's Access To Transit. We Took Service Out Of Routes With Multiple Buses, Mid-Day And Evening Services. After We Got Done With That We Still In The 3%, 6% Models Needed Additional Savings. After We Finished Trimming Everything We Felt We Can Without Eliminating Service We Hit On The Routes That Traditionally Have Lower Performance And Have Been Proposed For Elimination In The Past. That Included Route 80 On Metro Parkway Which We Talked About Last Year And 160 On Pine Island Which Has Low Ridership But We Understand Provides Needed Service.



Route 150, Commissioner Mann Is Back On The List In The 6% Model. We Have Reached A Point Where We Eventually Had To Go Back To Looking At Routes That Were Underperforming. You Will Also Note That We Went Into Some Of Our -- Some Of The Services That Have High Productivity Like Route 140, U.S. 41 Has High Productivity. But Again We Can Take Service Out Of There And Not Eliminate Service. The Beach Services Which Have High Productivity, But We Felt Were -- Those Indicator Particularly To People That Probably Have Choices Rather Than People Who Don't Have Choices. We Went Through Several Different Ways Of Look At Eliminations Or Reductions That Would Be Required This Year. Unfortunately Route 160 Pops Up In The 3% Model As A Proposed Elimination. We Were Trying To Work Out Alternatives. You Understand There Is A Group Of Elderly People That Were Thursday Only And They Scheduled All Their Meetings -- Dentist, Shopping, Everything. We Were Working On An Alternative Scheme For Them. So Have They Been Notified Or Have You Been Working With Them On This? I Don't Want To Catch Them By Surprise. We Will Notify Everyone Particularly On Affected Routes. We'll Notify Them That The Proposals Are Pending. So They Will Get Notice And They Will Have An Opportunity To Either Appear Here At The Public Hearing Or Give Us Written Comment Or Call In To Us. I'm More Interested In Making Sure They Have A Service Available To Them -- Good Wheels Or Whatever. I Understand We're Still Working On That. We Did Last Year. We Tried To Find Alternative Services -- Maybe Volunteer Services To Assist Them. We Didn't Find Any Organized Group Of Folks Out There.



These Folks Probably Will Be -- You Know, They Will Probably Qualify For Transportation Disadvantage. That's What I'm Hoping Because They Are Essentially Elderly And They Really Need This Type Of Service Because They Don't Drive Or Anything. Thank You. I Second The Item, I Guess. Chairman Judah: If I Could, Steve, Let Me Just Take This Opportunity Because I Had An Opportunity To Make A Presentation At Fort Myers Beach Town Council Last Night On A Couple Of Issues. One Had To Do With The Proposed Transit Authority. I Want To Thank Steve. His Staff Did A Very Commendable Job Last Night Along With Joel Ray, A Consultant For The Mpo And Don Scott And The Other Representatives To The Mpo Regional Planning Council. In Making A Presentation To The Town Council That Is Actually Composed Of Members That Understand And Support Public Transportation. I Was Very Encouraged With The Response From The Town Council Last Night In Recognizing That They Needed To Provide A Representative To Sit At The Table With The Oversight Committee As We Look To Promote And Hopefully Support The Transit Authority. As We Look To Find Ways To Fully Fund And Provide For A Fully Functional And Operational Public Transportation System Such As Pine Island Or Bonita Springs Or To Any Other Part Of The Community, The Transit Authority Seems To Be The Ultimate Goal Where We Can Have A Dedicated Funding Source To Fully Fund Public Transportation. Our Ridership, As We Know, Has Increased Over Three Million Passengers A Year Now. The Continued Increasing Subsidy Is Evident. We Have To Be Able To Provide A More Appropriate Alternative As Opposed To Continuing With The Current Fund. Steve's Done A Remarkable Job With The Staff. Looks Like The Town Of Fort Myers Beach Will Come On Board And Hopefully Will Be Part Of The Agreement As We Move Forward With Review And Analysis Of The Transit Authority. Any Further Discussion? Commissioner Bigelow?



Comm. Bigelow: Route 150 In Bonita Springs, It Was Off And Then On For The City Council As Far As Their Co-Share In The Expense? Yes, Commissioner. The City Of Bonita Springs Had Notified Us That They Were Planning To Eliminate Their Contribution Effective Almost Immediately, Or As Fast As They Could, During This Budget Year For That Route. But Then A Couple Council Meetings Later They Came Back, Reversed The Decision And They Have Now Notified Us That They Will Continue Through This Budget Year To Provide Contribution To The Service. As Far As Next Year, Of Course, That's Up In The Air. Comm. Bigelow: What Percentage Of Their Contribution? They Provide Probably In The Range Of 40% Of The Cost Of The Route. They Pay 50% Of The Expense For The Route That Operates Within Their City. And The Route Goes Up To Coconut Point Mall. Once We're Out Of The City Then The County Pays The Cost Of That Segment Of It. About $170,000 This Current Fiscal Year. Comm. Bigelow: Appreciate It. Thank You, Mr. Chairman. Chairman Judah: Thank You. Any Further Discussion? Any Objection? Motion Passes. Item 9-B. Obviously With The Recent Agreement With Regards To The Lift And The Discussions That Took Place We Recognize That The Issue Really Evolved To Recognize -- And It's A Regional Issue, Not Just Cape Coral Because Of The Rate And Volume Of Run-Off In 100 Square Miles Of Watershed Affecting The Spreader Swale And Ultimately Pine Island. The Slew Provides A Lot Of That Discharge From The Watershed. With This Item Before Us Today It Looks Like There Is A Proposal To Do More Widening And Deepening. My Concern Is The Rate And Volume Of Run-Off That's Often Laden With Nutrients Creating Impacts To The Receiving Water Bodies.



Do We Have Ways To Assure This Is Not Going To Increase Drainage? Because We Want To Actually Provide For Suitable Retention In The Upper Reaches Of The Watershed. We Don't Want To Drain The Land To Protect Water Supplies And The Plume Loading And The Rate Of Run-Off. That Was My Concern Here Looking Like It Would Involve More Deepening And Widening. Maybe You Could Comment. O.K. Good Morning. Natural Resources Ford. This Is One Phase Of A Multi-Phase Project We Have Been Working On With Water Management District Dep And The City Of Cape Coral On Addressing The Gator Slew Watershed Area. Through Development Practices In The Past Basically Blocked Off Some Of The Corridors From The North From Charlotte County Down To Gator Slew. This Is One Piece Where It Provides An Opening Or Flow Way Corridor, Just Reserves The Corridor East Of Terra Woods To The Railway Grate. We Purchased Lands North Of Western Acres. We're Providing That Interceptor Of The Flow Ways That Move From The North And Puts It Into The Gator Slew System. There Are Other Phases That Address Restoring Flows To Powell Creek And Dawtry Creek. This Is A Five-Year Process With Dep And The Whole Core On The Project. This Is A Piece Of It. It Will Provide Basically A Linear -- I Mean, You Don't Have Much Room For Creativity. A Linear Feature Of A Filter Marsh. It's A Shallow Swale With The Plannings Intercepting The Water From The North. It Reserves That Corridor. Without It, As Development Has A Cured It's Basically Closed Off The Historic Connections.



Chairman Judah: It Sounds Like You Will Take On More Drainage Because You Will Connect Two Areas That Were Previously Not Connected To Gator Slew. Do We Have Sufficient Water Control Structures To Help Retain Ground Water Levels And Not Allow For Excessive Drainage Of The Land That's Going To Ultimately Connect To Gator Slew? Right. This Is Actually -- This Is Reserving The Historic Flow Pattern. This Is Reserving The Opening. When Development Does Occur We Have A Corridor Established. Because It's Near Wetlands We Are Required To Put In Environmental Weirs. There Will Be Wet Season Water Tables Reserved And The City Of Cape Coral, Part Of The Early Phases Was To Raise Weirs In The Gator Slew To Supplement Their Water System. It's Been Coordinated In Terms Of -- Chairman Judah: Some Of The Weirs Have Been Raised Or Are In Place Today? Oh, Yeah. Cape Coral Raised Their Weirs In Their System. Then We'll Put Weirs In Ours Because We're In Close Proximity To The Wet Lands And We Have Environmental Weirs Along Terra Woods From An Earlier Phase. Chairman Judah: Chair Will Entertain A Mission. Any Discussion? Commissioner Bigelow? Comm. Bigelow: This Is Not The Lowest Bid. It's The Second Lowest, Correct? Right. Comm. Bigelow: You're Saying This Is The Lowest Responsive Responsible Bidder. They Get Local Bidder Preference. It's 3% And They Are Within Half A Percent Of The Low Bid. Comm. Bigelow: I'm Not Familiar With That. You Explain? In The Commissioners In The Past Provide Preference To Local Bidders, Someone With An Established Office And Facilities In Lee County.



I Believe It's 3% Window. In This Case They Are Only Half A Percent. So It's A Couple Thousand Dollars Different. Comm. Bigelow: Thank You. I Would Point Out That We Had 12 Bids Here. So Lots Of Contractors Out There Anxious For Work. I Think When We Look At Our Seeing The Contracts -- Jim Lavender Isn't Smiling. That We Be Cognizant That Subcontractors Should Be Encouraged And We Should Do What We Can To Be Sure Our Cms Bid Out All Their Subcontracted Work. Thank You. Chairman Judah: It Is Certainly Fortunate That We Have The 3% Local Bidders' Preference In Place To Help Out The Local Contractors. Any Further Discussion? Objection? Motion Passes. Onto The Administrative Agenda. Looks Like There's None. We Go To The Public Hearing Portion Of The Agenda. Good Morning, Diana. Mr. Chairman, Members Of The Board. Andrea Fraser From The County Attorney's Office. This Is A Public Hearing For The Note Of Enactment Of A County Ordinance Which Is The Incentive Pay Program For Early Termination Of Employment For Qualified Employees. The Notice Of Intent To Enact This Ordinance Was Placed In The Fort Myers News Press On May 10, 2008. After Review I Find It Legally Sufficient To Proceed With The Public Hearing At This Time. I Have Provided It To The Clerk For Incorporation Into The Minutes. If There Are Questions, Dinah And I Are Here To Answer Them.



Comm. Bigelow: I Have Questions Of The County Attorney. Chairman Judah: Andrea, You Can Respond? Yes, Sir. Comm. Bigelow: Do You Want To Do Questions After The Presentation? That's Fine. Chairman Judah: We'll Hear From Dinah Then Quickly. Comm. Bigelow: You Would Prefer To Hear From The Public First Chairman Judah: Probably A Good Idea. Comm. Bigelow: Then They Can React To Answers. Good Morning. Dinah Lewis, Public Services. This Is For The Consideration Of Adoption Of An Ordinance Which Would Implement A Voluntary Separation Incentive Program For Lee County. Accompanying It Are Two Resolutions. One That Would Affect The Board's Employees And Another Resolution That Would Affect The Sheriff's Employees. Mr. Berquist Is Here If There Are Questions About The Sheriff's Resolution. This Program, As We Briefed You At Management And Planning, Provides For Employees To Voluntarily Separate In Exchange For An Incentive. The Advantage To The County Is That It Provides For A Voluntary Staff Reduction, Lowers Payroll Costs And Facilitates Structural Changes. For Employees The Advantage Is An Incentive In The -- Financial Incentive For Employees Who Choose To Voluntarily Separate. It Also Provides For An Orderly Transition. To Implement Should The Board Elect To Proceed Forward, We Would Provide Notice To Qualified Employees. There Would Be An Enrolment Period. We Propose That To Be The Month Of June Where Employees Would Make Their Choice To Participate In This Program.



And Then A Separation Date Would Be Selected And There Would Be Then Two Payments Made To Those Employees Who Choose To Enroll In The Program. One Within 30 Days Of Their Separation And The Other In January Of 2009. This Is For The Advantage Of The Employee To Break Those Payments Into Two Separate Tax Years To Reduce The Overall Tax Burden On Payments. Our Goal Would Be To Have Such A Program Implemented During This Current Fiscal Year And In Sufficient Time That The Changes Would Be Reflected In The Proposed Budget That We Would Bring Back To The Board Later On This Year Beginning For The Budget In October Of 2009. I Would Like To Highlight That This Is Separate From Any Retirement Program That The Employees May Otherwise Be Eligible For. With That I'm Here To Answer Questions. Thank You. Chairman Judah: Questions Before We Go To The Public? Comm. Bigelow: Could I Just Make A -- Could We See A Show Of Hands In The Audience Of Those Here To Make Public Comment? It May Be Appropriate That We Have Discussion That Would Then -- Chairman Judah: Do You Have Any Questions Of Andrea Or Dinah? Comm. Bigelow: I Do. Chairman Judah: Any Of The Public Wish To Comment? Comm. Bigelow: You Don't Understand -- Seeing None, Back To The Board. Commissioner Bigelow, You Have The Board. Comm. Bigelow: That Cuts To The Chase. Appreciate That. I Have Grave Concerns About This. At Our Port Authority Meeting We All Attended I Asked The Executive Director If He Was Going To Participate In This Program. I Still Don't Know That Answer. Can Anybody Tell Me If He Is Participating? Everybody's Looking At Everybody. We Have No Idea If -- It's A Different Program, Commissioner.



Hasn't Been Authorized Yet. Comm. Bigelow: O.K. So He's Not Volunteering To Participate? Chairman Judah: We Don't Know. Comm. Bigelow: O.K. Will There Be Another Day We'll Debate That Possibly If He Chooses To Do So? Chairman Judah: Mm-Hmm. Comm. Bigelow: O.K., Good. Yesterday I Asked The County Manager As Well As The County Attorney And Diana Parker, Hearing Examiner, To Provide Me A Listing Of Anyone Under Their Supervisory Control To Qualify For The Program. Chairman Judah: Why Would You Do That? Comm. Bigelow: I Made The Public Records Request So That I May Know The Ramifications Of This Should It Be Adopted. Chairman Judah: But You Need To Know The Individual People Rather Than Numbers Of People? Comm. Bigelow: Are You Taking The Floor? Comm. Hall: He's Asking A Question. Comm. Bigelow: I Have Not Asked A Question. Chairman Judah: I'm Asking A Question. Why Would You Ask For Personal Information? Comm. Bigelow: With All Due Respect I'm Going To Ignore You. Chairman Judah: I'm Asking As A Commissioner Why Are You Asking For Personal Information? This Has To Do With Numbers, Not Individuals. Comm. Bigelow: Again, With All Due Respect, I Have The Highest Degree Of Respect For You. I'm Going To Ignore Your Question. Chairman Judah: You Have To Answer To The Media Then. Comm. Bigelow: O.K. So I Made A Public Records Request Which Was, Simply Put, To Find Out The Names Of The Employees As Well As Their Title, Their Length Of Employment, Salary Level, Salary Range



And Whether Or Not They Fell Within The State's Retirement Program. The County Attorney Responded To My Public Records Request, Diana Parker Hearing Examiner Did As Well. Or Executive Director Of Port Authority Said He Would Get On It And I Have Yet To See It. That's, I Guess, Another Issue For Another Day. In Response To My Public Records Request -- And I'm Stating Public Records Request Over And Over Again Because I Asked For Nothing That Was Exempt From State Law In My Humble, Non-Legal Opinion. I Asked The County Attorney To Agree With Me That It Was A Public Records Request, Not Exempt From State Law And Still He Didn't Answer That Directly. But I Would Like To At Least Get An Answer On The Record From The County Attorney's Office If My Request For That Information Was In Violation Or Exempt From Any State Public Records Law Exemptions Or State Public Records Law. Commissioner, Your Request, While In And Of Itself Was A Public Records Request And Did Not Violate Any Type Of Public Records Law, The Way The Information Was Run By The H.R. Department Had Information That Was Health Information That When They Explained It To Me, I Said You Cannot Just Hand Out That Information. They Ran It With The Cost Of Health Care. That's The Way The Program Was Run. I'm Just Telling You. Comm. Bigelow: So The County Attorney Was Able To Provide It Without Giving Me Any Exempt Information. We Pulled Out -- We Don't Have That Health Care Information. H.R. Does, But We Did Not Have That. Comm. Bigelow: O.K. And In The Response, I Guess Which Would Be The County Manager's Response, I Got An E-Mail From Dinah Lewis That Said Nothing About Any Health Care Information Or Any Information That Would Be Included In That Request That Would Be Exempt From Public Records Law. So I'm Going To Conclude That My Request Was Legitimate, Valid, Not In Violation With State Law And Yet Not Answered. That The County Manager Is Accountable For Since Dinah Lewis Works For Him.



I Remain, To Say The Least, Disappointed That The County Manager Couldn't See Fit To Provide For Me Information That Is Not Only Germane To This Issue, Which Dinah Lewis Suggests Is Not Germane To This Issue, But Well Within My Purview As A Commissioner To Understand The Ramifications Of The Proposal Before Us. It Leads Me To Really Have Suspicions About What This Is All About. I Don't Know How We Can Move Forward With This Kind Of Idea If We Have No Idea What Kind Of Effect It's Going To Have On Our Staff In The End. And No One Has Presented Me With Any Costs Associated With This If All 800 Or So -- Which Is A Number That Seems To Get Thrown Around. It's Not Nailed Down, But If All 800 Or So Employees Part Company With Us In Quite Short Order, I Mean, We Could Be Left With Less Than A Skeleton Crew. So I Think That The Due Diligence That The County Manager Failed To Perform On This Issue In Order To Justify It -- It Rises To The Level Of Near Incompetence. I Can't Believe, Don, You Put This Forward Without Giving Us Any Way To Digest It Substantively. It Just Flies In The Face Of Logic. I Mean, I Have Seen The County Manager Put Forward Some Crazy Ideas Before And Voted Against Them Every Time But This Takes The Cake. Extremely Disappointed In The County Manager, Especially In Light Of His Recent Refusal To Provide Me, A Sitting County Commissioner, With Information That Any Citizen Could Request And Would Be Rightfully Entitled To Under State Law. In Fact, A Person Could Choose Not To Give Their Name. They Could Make An Anonymous Public Records Request And Get This Information. Yet, I Have Been Denied It. I Tell You, This Seat Is Not Very Comfortable For Me Today. I Am Extremely Disappointed In Our County Management. Mr. Chairman, If I May? Chairman Judah: Please, Don. Comm. Bigelow: I'm Not Done. I Have Not Asked Him A Question And I'm Not Done.



I Will Ask Some Questions Now. Dinah, Under The Proposal Put Before Us By The County Manager, It's Clear That This Does Not Apply To Our Contract Employees. That Would Be The County Manager, County Attorney, Hearing Examiner. Correct? Yes, Commissioner. That's Specifically Excluded In The Program. Comm. Bigelow: Does It Apply To Anyone In My Office? Commissioner, It Would Apply To All Board Employees Including The Executive Assistants Of The Commissioners. Comm. Bigelow: I'm Pretty Sure The Answer Is No, But Does It Apply To Me? It Does Not Apply To Elected Officials. Comm. Bigelow: I Couldn't Find Where It Was Specific That It Wouldn't Apply Because I Am A County Employee. I Just Want To Be Sure That It Doesn't Apply To Me. If, For Instance My Assistant Qualifies For This Program, She Had More Than Five Years, As Our Assistants Are In The Upper 35% Of The Pay Range For Their Position, Would Choose To Take This Position And Say I Was Running For Re-Election This Year, Could She Choose To Take It, Be Offered The Buy-Out Incentive And Then If I Were Re-Elected I Could Choose To Replace Her If The County Manager Agreed? So We'd Hire Her If The County Manager Agreed? After I Make It Through The Primary And General Election, Would I Be Able To Re-Hire Her If The County Manager Agreed. Commissioner, Any Employee Who Participated In This Program Would Only Be Able To Be Re-Hired By The Board As A Board Employee With Specific County Manager Approval As Outlined In The Program. Comm. Bigelow: So The Scenario I Just Put Forward To You Could Exist Under This Proposal? Yes. Comm. Bigelow: O.K. Thank You. And You Say That It Does Apply To All Of Our Executive Assistants? And Are There Any That Qualify? You Didn't Answer My Public Records Request, So I Can't Find It In The List That You Did Not Provide.



Does It Apply To Any -- Any Of Them Qualified? Mr. Chairman, If I Can Make A Few Comments About The Response To The Information Requested By Commissioner Bigelow? Chairman Judah: Please. I'm Sorry That You Misunderstood -- Comm. Bigelow: Does This Answer My Question? Chairman Judah: We're Going To Let Dinah Respond. I'm Sorry You Misunderstood My Response Back To You. It Was Not A Refusal For The Information. The Request For The Information Came Mid-Day Yesterday And Given That It Affects Some 800 Employees In The County, The Ability To Turn Around That Information Very Quickly Is Not Possible Because It Requires Some Work To Do That As Ms. Fraser Explained. The Information We Have At This Point Does Include Some Information That Would Have To Be Redacted. So It Was Not A Refusal To Give You The Information. It Was My Best Professional Judgment To Advise That The Material Is Sensitive And Certainly Could Affect An Employee's Decision To Voluntarily Participate In The Program. That Was The Caution That I Was Providing To You. Specifically Whether Any Of The Other Executive Assistants Would Qualify, I Would Have To Go Back And Look To See. Basically The Qualifications Are Five Years Of Current Continuous Service With The Board And Upper 35% Of The Pay Range. From My Observation, I Would Not Be At All Surprised That At Least Three Of The Executive Assistants Would Qualify. Comm. Bigelow: Say That Again. They Would Not? My Assumption At This Point Without Having Specific Information In Front Of Me Is That Three Of The Executive Assistants Would Qualify Under That Criteria. Comm. Bigelow: O.K. Who Are They? Or What Offices?



Chairman Judah: We're Not Getting Into That. I Absolutely Refuse To Have Him Involve Himself In My Office. He Has No Business In There And I Will Not Permit That. Chairman Judah: Or Any Personnel -- Any Personnel Issues. None. Comm. Bigelow: O.K. Can You Tell Me Since You Can't Provide Me This List -- Do You Have A List That You And The County Manager Have Looked At, Reviewed And Consider What Impact If This Should Pass And All Of The Employees That Qualify Took Us Up On This Offer? Have You Formed A List And Looked At It? Commissioner, We Have Generated A List Of Employees That We Think Would Qualify Under This Criteria. I Have Not Sat Down With The County Manager To Go Over That List Specifically. I Have Briefed Him On The Number Of Employees The Average Cost, The Average Longevity Of That Group Of Employees. Comm. Bigelow: So You're Telling Me That The List I Asked For You Have. You Have Considered It, Looked It Over And Considered It, Applied Your Managerial Expertise To It And Yet I Can't See It. You're Saying Time Was A Factor With My Request Coming In Yesterday Was A Time Crunch For You And Yet You're Telling Me Today You Have The List. Let Me Clarify One More Time, Commissioner. The List My Office Has Generated Includes Information Which Is Not Available For Public Record. Therefore, To Address Your Request Would Have Required And Will Require Some Additional Effort That Is Not Possible To Generate At This Time. We Will Be Responding To Your Request For Information. Comm. Bigelow: After This Decision Has Been Made. O.K. You Couldn't Put That In The E-Mail?



You Couldn't Have Put This New Information In The E-Mail Or This Reasoning For Not Being Able To Comply With My Request? You Couldn't? You Didn't. Seems Like If There Was A Time Crunch On You That You Would Have Told Me That. O.K. What Is The Range Of Costs That This Will Have Upon Us? How Much Will Our Taxpayers At A Minimum And A Maximum Have To Pay Out In Order To Fulfill This -- I Mean, From Nobody To Everybody That Would Qualify. Commissioner, The Costs Involve The Initial Separation Cost. They Also Involve Future Payroll Costs. Our Modeling Is That All Of The Separation Costs Would Be Repaid Through Reduced Salaries In Less Than Four Years. So The Initial Cost For Every 10% Of Eligible Employees Who Would Choose To Take This And Assuming That We Filled Every Single Position Immediately At The Maximum Of The Provision Which Is Mid-Point Of The Range It's About $4.5 Million For Every 10% Of Eligible Employees Who Would Choose To Take This Program. I Cannot Predict How Many Employees Will Take This Program. They Are Very Individual Decisions Based On Their Career Goals, Their Family Situations And Other Individual Private Criteria. So I Cannot Predict For You How Many Employees Would Choose To Participate. Comm. Bigelow: And What's The Top End? If 10% Is $4.5 Million, 100% Would Be Ten Times That. $45 Million In An Initial Separation Cost. Again, I Want To Stress That Those Costs Are Recouped In Less Than Four Years. At That Point The Payroll Costs Of The County Are Less Than They Would Have Been Without This Program Comm. Bigelow: We'll Recoup $45 Million In Four Years? Whatever Level Of Participation The Employees Have, The Costs Are Recouped Within Four Years. Comm. Bigelow: So This Is, At A Low End, $4.5 Million Assuming That 10% -- The Low End Would Be Zero, Commissioner, If No One Participated. Comm. Bigelow: Zero Dollar Expense To The Taxpayers If We Didn't Pass It.



$45 Million Hit If All Of Them Which Is That 800 Number, Take Us Up On The Offer, Right? Initially, But Again Within Less Than Four Years The Net Cost Is Less Than Zero Because -- Comm. Bigelow: Initial Impact, O.K. Yes, Sir. Comm. Bigelow: O.K. Thank You. David, How Many Employees Do You Have Total In Your Office? We Have 33. Comm. Bigelow: I'm Sorry? 33. Comm. Bigelow: 33. So Your Response Indicates That There Are Two, Four, Six, Eight, 10, 12, 14, 16 Possible Employees That Would Qualify For This Leaving You With Quite A Job On Your Hands To Quickly Hire Up New Replacements Because You've Got Two, Four, Six Attorneys On Her And A Paralegal. How Many Do You Have? One. Comm. Bigelow: So She's It. Yes. Comm. Bigelow: And Your Office Manager. This Could Potentially Almost Wipe Out Your Staff. That Is Really Concerning For Me. That Means We Have To Quickly Resurrect The County Attorney's Office. O.K. I Tell You, I Don't Like This. I Think It's Unwise. I Think That It Was Put Forward In A Hasty And Unjustified Manner. I Think The County Manager's Failed To Do His Due Diligence On This And Properly Justify His Request Before Us.



I'll Say It Again. It Rises To The Level Of Such Deep Disappointment In Myself And Then To Have His, Who I Consider Deputy Manager, Dinah Lewis, She Acts Like She Is In The Execution Of Her Duties To Refuse To Give Me A List Which She Admits Today She Had Already On Hand And Claims Some Exemptions She Couldn't Share With Me In The E-Mail. I Tell You, I Am -- I Mean I've Had It With The County Management. This Really Does Finalize It For Me. It's The Straw That Broke The Camel's Back For Me. Chairman Judah: We Thank You For Your Comments, Commissioner Bigelow. Commissioner Hall, Did You Want To Comment? Comm. Hall: Thank You. I Guess Commissioner Bigelow, Since You Have Chosen To Take So Much Of All Of Your Time With Your Public Records Request This Morning And Belabor All Of The Disappointment That You Have With Different Members Of Our Senior Members Of Staff, I Would Like To Have -- And You Are Endlessly Asking Us For More Interaction. I Would Like To Ask What Are Your Suspicions? Because I Certainly Have No Idea, Because You Haven't Clarified To Me Or I Would Guess My Colleagues -- You Said You Had Huge Suspicions On What This Program Is Really About. You Keep Using "Disappointment "And All These Other Terms. I Would Like You To Clarify Your Suspicions As To What You Feel This Program Is About If It's Not About What Has Been Presented To Us. Comm. Bigelow: Well, It's Kind Of Prima Fascia As Far As What's Going On Here. It's Obvious. Comm. Hall: Not To Me. Can You Answer The Question? Comm. Bigelow: This Is Meant To Repay Loyalty. It's A Golden Parachute, Of Sorts. I Think That It Indicates Some Kind Of Exit Plan On The County Manager's Part. Comm. Hall: Exit Plan For Whom?



Comm. Bigelow: That's My Suspicion. Comm. Hall: For Whom? Comm. Bigelow: This Could Potentially Be An Exit Plan For The County Manager. Comm. Hall: So You're Saying That The County Manager Has Put Forth This Program As An Exit Plan For Himself Who Does Not Qualify For This Program And That Somehow You Have Taken And Twisted Around That There Is Some Golden Parachutes For Certain Assistants? I Guess -- O.K. That's Your Answer. I'll Accept That That's Your Answer. You Know, Mr. Chairman, We Sit Here Week After Week And I Know That You And I And I See All Of My Colleagues Regularly Out Talking To The Public. These Are Extremely Challenging Times. Each One Of Us Has The Public's Trust And Confidence Because We're Sitting Here, Whether You Won By Two Votes Or A Thousand Votes. This Public Said, "We Are Entrusting You With Our Tax Dollars, Our Social Agenda, We Want Your Leadership, We Want To See This Community Be A Better Place." And It's Incumbent Upon Us To Lead By Example. It's Incumbent Upon Us To Treat Our Employees With Respect In A Public Manner. Certainly When Issues Need To Be Discussed, We Have Sunshine Law. Let's Discuss Them Openly, But Also Respectfully. If You're Going To Make Accusations, Have Proof. These Are People's Characters, Their Futures. These Are People Who May Be Leaving And Going Onto Other Careers. I'm Sorry I'm Not Feeling Very Well Today. I Could Probably Be More Eloquent In My Comments But There Needs To Be Deco Rum On This Board That Not Only Shows Respect For Our Employees And The Public But For Other Municipalities, Other Elected Officials. I Am Becoming Overwrought With Disappointment In How We Behave Sometimes And The Things We Say. And I Would Really Hope That If Someone -- A County Commissioner Is Going To Take A Public Position And Ask For Public Records, That's Not A Commissioner's Position.



That's A Public's Position. To Make Us All Sit Here For 20 Minutes And Go Through Points That I Don't Understand What Are The Points For This Board To Decide On? If There Is An Issue, Get To The Bottom Line. What Is The Concern? If You're Concerned -- You Know, You're Chastising A Process That Was A Personal Process Because You Have Gone Through A Public Records Request. Someone Didn't Respond To You In A Timely Fashion, But Yet We Are Here Taking Our Time Listening To The Chastising That Someone Didn't Turn Around A Public Records Request In Three Hours. Or Whatever Hours It Was. It's Not Even Been 24 Hours Since The Request Was Made. I Believe We Have To Find Some Policy. It's Not Right. It's Not Fair. If There Is Something Suspicious Or Scandalous And We Need To Bring It Forward Then Bring It Forward, But Let's Bring It Forward With Facts Where There Is An Action. How Long Do We Express Opinions? Obviously I'm Expressing Mine Almost To The Same Degree As I Just Sat Through. But It's Becoming Concerning Enough For Me To Raise To This Board Our Policy On At What Point Do We Say, O.K., Enough. This Has Nothing To Do With The Public -- Our Responsibility To The Public To Bring Something To Their Attention. Nor Is It A Need For Us Because It's Not A Board Issue. It's A Personality Personal Issue. Mr. Chairman, I Don't Know Where To Go With This Anymore. It's Disappointing To Me. I Have Served On This Board For Almost Four Years And I'm Going To Tell You, The Last Two Years Have Been Challenging. I Have Been Accused Myself Of All Kinds Of Malfeasance And I Have Had Gust Opinions



Written About Me, About My Voting Record Which Wasn't Even True And All Kinds Of Things. We Have Sat Here Respectfully And Have Taken It. I Have Been Called A Hold-Over, All Kinds Of Things. Yet The People Of This Community Have Said, You Know, Commissioner Hall, We Do Want You To Come Back And Serve. And In 2006 They Made That Decision. So I Find '02 Hard To Believe I'm A Hold-Over. And Then To Read That Hold-Over Was Meant To Be -- I Don't Know, Not A Disciplinary Term. I Would Like To Get On With The Business Of The County. Chairman Judah: Chair Will Entertain A Motion? Comm. Hall: I Will Move It. Chairman Judah: Seconded By Commissioner Janes. At This Point In Time The Chair Would Like To Request A Response From The County Manager. Thank You. This Is Distressing To Everyone. I Have Been Doing This A Long Time And Have Never Had These Comments Before. They Are Very Personal And I'm Sorry You Have Suspicions. I Don't Know What To Say To You. We Met With Every Board Member To Talk About This, Talk About Potential Costs. There Is No Devious Plan Here. This Same Program Was Followed Ten Years Ago Or Something Like That. I Don't Know. I Guess The Best Thing To Do Is Just Be Quiet. I Don't Like Having My Integrity Impugned.



I Don't Like The Insinuations Or Innuendos. I Don't Know How You Stop That. We Can't Allow This In The County. 15 Years Ago We Had This Going On And We Know The Cost To Taxpayers At That Time. It's Not Productive. It's Counter Productive. The Very Reason That We Suggested Not Individualizing All These People Who Are Eligible For An Early Out Is We Didn't Want To Put Them On The Spot. That's Very Personal Information. I Think The Press Will Go Back And Look At The Communication Between The County Manager And The Human Resources Director Yesterday And Find That The County Manager Said, Please Look Into This. Respect The Privacy Of Individual Employees. We Don't Want To Put Them In An Awkward Position. You Heard The H.R. Director Tell You That Was Our Major Concern. It's A Voluntary Program. We Want People To Exercise That Without Any Undue Pressure From Me Or Anybody Else. We Don't Want Someone Talking Someone In. You Know, We Have To Keep You Here Because The Program Will Go To Hell Or We Want To Get Rid Of You, Please Go Away. This Is A Voluntary Program. It Allows Lee County To Have People Who Voluntarily Want To Leave And Then We Can Reduce The Work Force And Perhaps Not Have To Lay Off People Later On. Chairman Judah: Could You Please Repeat That Again? The Intent Of What We Are Attempting To Accomplish Today. It Allows Us To Allow People To Voluntarily If They Have, As Commissioner Hall Just Said, If They Have Another Opportunity Or Another Career Path In Mind Or They Want To Move Back With Family, Whatever It Is. It Gives Them An Opportunity To Voluntarily Leave And It Also Protects Our Other



Employees From The Possibility Of Lay-Off. We Have Over 200 Vacant Positions Right Now. We Have Been Holding Those Vacant. We Want To Combine Those With The Voluntary Separation And Once We Get The Voluntary Separation, We're Very Hopeful We're Going To Be In A Position Where We Aren't Going To Lay Anyone Off. We Have To Be Careful About Individual Employee Rights And I'm Going To Be Blunt. Commissioner Bigelow, I'm Not Disrespecting Your Office At All, But It's Ugly To Talk About People The Way You Talked Today And To Individualize This As Is Being Suggested By You To Identify Each And Every One That Might Be Eligible For This -- You Put Tremendous Pressure On Them, Particularly If We Come After Them With The Line Of Reasoning You Were Employing There. That Destroys An Organization. I Don't Know Any Other Way To Say It To You. That's The Kind Of Thing That Destroys An Organization. This Is Where Lee County Was 15 Years Ago. I Don't Think We Want To Go Back There. All I Can Say To You In Closing -- The Record Is Clear About What I Said As The County Manager Yesterday About Get This Information But Be Sure And Protect Individual Employees' Privacy. It Certainly Is Public Information. No One Doubts That, Questions That. I Don't Do That. The H.R. Director Said Clearly -- I Have A Copy Of Her Memorandum To You. She Said Clearly That That's Public Information And She's Happy To Share It With You. Comm. Bigelow: She Did Not. I'm Sorry You Have Come To The Conclusion 180° From That. The Record Is There. She States Unequivocally That She's Happy To Meet With You And Share That Information.



Whatever You Want To Do, But We Want To Protect The Individual Privacy Of Employees. Chairman Judah: Under Discussion, Chair Will Call The Question. Discussion? Objection? Motion Passes 4-1. Commissioner Bigelow Dissenting. Now For The Main Motion. We Have A Motion And A Second. There Is No Further Discussion. We Have Already Called The Question. Objection? Motion Passes 4-1, Commissioner Bigelow Dissenting. That's It For That Item. Comm. Bigelow: In Light Of The Manager -- I Move -- Chairman Judah: That's It For The Item. We'll Now Go On To Commissioner Items. Commissioner Bigelow, Any Other Commissioner Items? Comm. Bigelow: That's A Motion I Have Made. Chairman Judah: Motion By Commissioner Bigelow? Rephrase The Motion, Please. Comm. Bigelow: I Call For The County Manager's Resignation By The End Of The Day. If He Is Not Rendered By The End Of The Day That Tomorrow Morning He Will Be Terminated. Chairman Judah: Motion By Commissioner Bigelow. Do We Have A Second? Do We Have A Second? Motion Fails For Lack Of Second. Now To Meaningful Items? Any Other Commissioner Items From You, Commissioner Bigelow?



Comm. Bigelow: Yes, Thank You. Comm. Hall: Unbelievable. Comm. Bigelow: Let Me Take A Breath Here. Let Me Put You On Notice I Have Two Items And Think I Will Just Make The One. As You Probably Know, Lee County Home Ownership Resource Center Recently Used One Of Our Community Development Department Rooms And Ten Phone Lines In Order To Provide An Eight-Hour Hotline Service For Those Residents That Are Impacted By The Unprecedented Foreclosure Rate In Our County. We Required Them To Pay $800 For The Use Of That Room And For Those Ten Phone Lines. I Would Ask This Board That We Waive That $800 Since It Would Be A Nice Gesture And A Way To Support The Hard Work And Very Hard Economic Times That Lee County Home Ownership Resource Center Has Provided. Chairman Judah: Before The Motion -- Or I Guess You Have. I Was Going To Suggest We Give Direction To Administration To Bring A Blue Sheet To The Board So We Have An Understanding Of The Staff's Position. Comm. Bigelow: That Would Be Fine. I Think We Must Notice Or Remind The Board Members That We Generally Do Not At These Particular Portions Of The Agenda Spend Money Unless We Bring It Back As A Blue Sheet. To Make A Recommendation That We Pay Something Is Out Of Order. They Can Bring It Back As A Blue Sheet. It Should Have Been Mentioned Before Happened. Chairman Judah: O.K. Commissioner Bigelow You Had A Second Item? Comm. Bigelow: No. Chairman Judah: Commissioner Mann? Comm. Mann: Mr. Chairman, This Has Been A Challenging Morning To Say The Least. I Had Some Thoughts With Regard To The Voluntary -- What Are The Initials? The Buyout Program. I Didn't Get A Chance To Offer Since We Moved Through It And I Understand The Chair's Interest In Moving That Along Because It Was A Painful Experience.



But I Would Just Like To Take Commissioner's Item Chance Here To Say A Couple Thing About It. Chairman Judah: Absolutely. Comm. Mann: I Support The Program But I Have Concerns That I Hope Staff Will Take Into Consideration As The Program Moves Forward And As Implemented. We Had Some People At Hearings Last Week That Mentioned That When They Have Seen Programs Like This Implemented Usually The Reorganization Plan Was In Effect Prior To Putting It On The Streets And Seeing How Many People Would Take Advantage Of It. Frankly, That Made Sense. I Have Watched Major Corporations In The United States -- Ford And General Motors To Name Two Of Them, And Several Major Airlines Have All Used This Strategy As A Way Of Saving Millions Of Dollars In Payroll. So There Is Good Precedent For What We Are Doing Here In Theory So Far. But Probably There Will Be Those That Take Advantage Of It. So Based On That Strong Precedent That I Know It's A Workable Way To Save Money, I'm Supportive Of It. I Would Have Liked To Have Known More About The Implementation Plan And How That Was Going To Work. Because At This Point With My Mathematics, I Can't Possibly Begin To Calculate The Savings Because First We Don't Have The Plan In Effect Say Which Positions Will Be Left On The Table, Which Are Going To Be Blended, What's Going To Go Away, And We Don't Know How Many People Are Going To Take Advantage Of The Opportunity Here. So There's No Real Way To Calculate The Savings. So I'm Going To Be Very Interested In How That Comes Together And What Those Ultimate Savings Really Are. But Again, I Think Based On What We Have Seen The Private Sector Do, The Notion Is A Good One. Therefore, I Am Supportive Of It. But There Is A Lot More That I, As A Commissioner, Want To See. Chairman Judah: I Appreciate It, Commissioner. I Think Some Of Those Concerns, Questions Could Certainly Be Responded To In Writing For The Entire Board.



Thank You, Commissioner Mann. Commissioner Janes? Comm. Janes: Let Me Just Say That I Have A Slight Disagreement With Commissioner Mann Over There. It Is Very Difficult To Come Up With A Reorganization Plan Unless You Have An Idea Of The Number Of People Involved And The Missions To Be Accomplished. We Have No Idea -- It Would Be Silly To Develop A Reorganization Plan That Presumed That 500 People Would Take Early Retirement And Only 23 Did It. It Kind Of Throws The Reorganization Plan -- Crazy. You Really Can't Develop A Plan If, In Fact, We Need One, Until We See The Impact Of The Early Buyout Program. I Think This Is A Bit Of A Conundrum That We Need To Resolve Before We Do Anything. I'm Happy To See The Program Move Along. I Think It Offers An Opportunity For A Number Of People To Perhaps If They Are Interested In Another Career Path To Take Advantage Of It. It's A Good Program. I Just For The Life Of Me Do Not See -- It's Almost Mccarthyesque, I Have Communists In My Hand, I Have Suspicions And Reasons That Don't Make Sense. First Of All, The County Manager Is Not Included In The Program. So Why Would He Have Any Advantage At All In Trying To Develop A Golden Parachute If He's Not Covered By The Plan? The Whole Thing Is Bizarre. I'm Pleased That We Have Restored A Degree Of Rational Ti By Moving Through It To See What The Results And Implications Will Be And We Can Go From There. Until We Know What The Results Are It Is Very Difficult To Plan An Organizational Structure Or Reorganization Or Whatever Until We Do Have Some Information As To The Impact. Chairman Judah: Commissioner Hall? Comm. Hall: I Have Just A Couple Of Announcements. They Are Not Items Per Se. First Of All, I Want To Thank Tom And Pam Cronan For Hosting The Relay For Life.



It Was The First Relay For Life In North Fort Myers. It Was Well-Attended. I Think The Colleagues Were Able To Come And Speak To Them. Tom Is A Cancer Survivor As Most Of You Know. Very Generous Of Them. It Was A Wonderful Event. I Also Want To Congratulate The Art Of The Olympians Opened Their Show At The Art Gallery At Edison Community College. It Was A Wonderful Reception On Saturday Evening. I Was Honored To Have My Nephews With Me Who Had An Opportunity To Meet Olympians. This Reinforces Sports Marketing And The Diversity Of The Economy Here. We Are Certainly Honored That Lee County Was Chosen To Host The Art Of The Olympian Gallery. We Want To Thank The City Of Fort Myers For Working With Lee County Government To Secure A Home For Them Here. I Think It Will Be A Huge Asset For Us As We Continue To Create An Opportunity For Athletes And Sporting Events Of All Types To Have Their Events In Lee County. I Want To Thank The Staff For Working On That. It Took A While. I Also Want To Thank The Visitor And Convention Bureau Advisory Board For Supporting The Grant That Came Through The Art Of The Olympians. Thank You. Chairman Judah: Thank You. David, The Resolution Regarding The Voluntary Incentive Program Also Included The Sheriff's Resolution? Yes. Chairman Judah: Very Good. Commissioner Bigelow, Committee Appointments?



Comm. Bigelow: No. Chairman Judah: Commissioner Mann? Comm. Mann: No. Comm. Hall: None. Chairman Judah: I Have One That I Sent To All Of You. It Has To Do With -- It's To The Review Panel 2008. We Have A Motion By Commissioner Mann. Comm. Hall: Second. Chairman Judah: Second By Commissioner Hall. Do I Need To Read The Names Into The Record? Sarah Baker, Wendy Waliderman, Peg Elmore, Amanda Dui Terrez, Anne Wiringo. All To The Panel For 2008. Discussion, Objection? Motion Passes. We Now Go To Manager Items. Very Briefly Mr. Chairman. Not To Be Defensive -- Chairman Judah: Pardon Me? Not To Be Defensive, But I Have To Say To You I Have Been Doing This A Long Time. Worked For Six Different Cities And Counties And Never Had My Integrity Questioned Before. I Challenge You To Find It Out On The Internet. It Should Be Easy To Find Out. In All These Years I Have Never Had This Kind Of Lecture Before. I Would Say To You, Lee County Is In Very Good Shape. We Have A Wonderful Reputation Around The State. We Have A Wonderful Reputation With Our Cities In Lee County. We're Not Perfect.



We Work Very Hard And Try To Do Things Right. We Welcome Openness. No One's Got Anything To Hide. We Welcome Questions From Anyone And Everyone. We Have A Lot Of Really Good People. Let's Keep Our Organization Going And With Your Support, We're Going Into A Very, Very Difficult Time With Money And That Brings Out The Best And Worst Of People. I Feel Confident That We Will Bring Out The Best In All Of Us And We Will Get There And The Taxpayers Of Lee County Will See The Wisdom Of Your Guidance Of The Ship And My Day-To-Day Action On Your Behalf. But One Last Comment. We All Work For The Board. Stillwell Doesn't Have Any Cronies. We Are All Staff To The Board Of County Commissioners. The Manager Is Responsible For The Day To Day Implementation Of The Direction. We Welcome Any And All Questions And We'll Do All We Can To Be Candid And Open With Everyone. Chairman Judah: Thank You. Comm. Bigelow: He's Inviting Questions And I Would Like -- That's Out Of Order. The Next Item On The Agenda Is His. Comm. Hall: Second. Comm. Bigelow: You're Going To Squelch My Opportunity -- Chairman Judah: You Had Plenty. I Think The Chair Has Ruled -- You Spoke For A Long Time This Morning And It Was Bizarre. Chairman Judah: Let Me Say I'm Preach That Johnny Streets Is Here. Welcome.



We Are Adjourned.

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Meeting Transcript Provided By Public Resources fileMeeting Transcript Provided By Public Resources May 20, ... We Thank You For This Day. ... It's The Men And Women That Deserve This