County Commission Week
Hope you all had a great weekend!
It is a BOOC meeting week, so today I am going to highlight some things for the meeting tomorrow if you are planning on attending or just watching.
The big thing and we covered this a bit last week is the Right Rudder Lawsuit. As mentioned in the other article... the county is discussing a settlement with Right Rudder to end the litigation. The county does not really get anything from this for the $100k or so they spent to get to this point. The main point of contention, the Part 141 requirement, goes away under this settlement.
Honestly, not sure what the point of all of this was.
We have an agenda item for the commissioners to approve a $350k remodel of the Inverness Government Center as part of the county's decision to move the offices for the BOCC and legal services to that building so the county can begin renovations of the courthouse building to expand judicial space.
The county is formally accepting the $800k appropriation from Tallahassee to begin repairs at Chassahowitzka River Campground. This will help fund repairs to the parking lot, boat launch area, restrooms, etc. There is a $500k match from the county. This does NOT come from Ad Valorem funds. It is coming from operating revenue from the campground.
The county is looking to buy a piece of property near the MacRaes boat ramp to expand the parking available for boats/trailers. Appraisals were ordered by the board in May and they county has received 2 proposals for the .85 acre parcel. The appraisals at $580,000 and $865,000. If approved, the board would need to determine funding sources. The Park Impact Fee fund has approximately $2.8 million in it. The Boat Lauch Fee fund has approximately $1 million in it. So this could be funded without using Ad Valorem funds. It is estimated to add an additional 22 to 35 boat trailer parking spots.
We will have some discussion on new Library Policies. I would expect to see this get some discussion from the public, largely around the display policy.
I do expect this policy to ruffle some feathers, largely the broad "items of general interest to the public."
That opens the door to pretty much anything. So this could be interesting.
We have a stormwater MSBU approval to set the rate for the next fiscal year. These types of things generally draw people out, largely opposed to them.
One thing that will come up from Commissioner Davis... Doggy Day Out.
Not sure of the full details yes, but this appears to allow county staff to bring well behaved shelter dogs into government buildings and offices, including potentially commission meetings. It also appears to allow citizens to check out a dog for the day (or multiple days) for socialization and things of that nature.
Will be interesting to see where this goes, but I guess my question is if they are coming into government offices and the like, what if someone does not like dogs? Are they allowed to leave their space if a dog is present?
Commissioner Kinnard wants to discuss having 2 meetings to address the potential changes to county funds if Amendment 3 is passed.
Seems like a smart idea to start thinking about that and what that looks like for the county. In his radio spot on Friday, he said that citizens/county would have to decide what they no longer want if Amendment 3 passes as expenses have to be significantly cut.
Then we have Commissioner Barek presenting a budget proposal of things to cut.
I do not have time to do all the math, but you can look at her proposals here and here
Then we finish the day with a hearing for the Pulte Project of 600+ homes on 200.
This was a 6-0 denial at the PDC.. so interested to see where the BOCC is... and this is the first project after the elections, so we will see how the two outgoing commissioners handle this. Could give us an idea on what is to come over the next 3 months or so.
That's it.. Have a great day!