Fun day at the BOCC

Happy Commission Tuesday.

Today is going to be a fun one. The biggest thing of the day is the Betz Farm "rescind" of the previous motion to terminate the contract. That will likely be an interesting discussion.

We also have a moratorium on the table for data centers. This would effectively ban data centers from being built here for 12 months. We have a presentation on vehicles the county owns. This comes after a citizen questioned how many Tahoes the county staff use and presumably take home. We have a discussion on launch fees for non-residents of Citrus County. We have the potential cancellation of the Core Civic contract and handing the jail back to the CCSO.

If I were to guess... the moratorium fails 3-2 (Kinnard, Bays and Barek vote against it, Finegan and Davis vote for it), although I can see it also being 4-1 (Finegan being the lone). Based on comments they have made publicly, it appears there is plenty of support for data centers potentially.

Personally, I am not a fan of banning businesses from doing their thing, as mentioned during the medical marijuana ban... but this board has set the precedent to do so... and the previous board set the precedent to effectively ban car washes and storage units. Would not surprise me to see a ban on data centers, but I do not think there is support.

I also think the jail contract is cancelled and given back to the CCSO. Curious to see if there is an update on the total cost to do this and what would need to be replaced at the jail upon management change.

But the big one of the day... Betz Farm.

I have written how this should not even be on the agenda in its current form. Have a discussion all they want, but they should not make the vote to rescind the termination letter since that ship has sailed. I do not think they can simply make a motion to re-instate it either, since that goes counter to the previous motion.

But I feel that will be ignored... or if its not, I feel they will put some type of motion on the table and some type of vote. The problem with that... they have not had it on the agenda as such. So technically, they cannot do that either.

What a mess.

All eyes will be on Rebecca Bays today. If this motion comes forward as it is, or some similar type motion that would re-instate the contract, does she vote to approve that? I presume (maybe wrongly) that Davis wants this contract back on the table. Kinnard voted against it originally, so I assume he will vote to bring it back. Finegan and Barek are hard "no" votes on the contract, so they will not flip.

It all comes down to Bays. Normally, not a major deal... but it is an election year and she has an opponent in Dr Holli Herndon, who could certainly use a major mistake by Bays.

There is a large percentage of the county that is tired of the growth and what appears to be rubber stamp approvals (to the tune of 75% as shown yesterday). Reversing her vote on Betz Farm cancellation will become a big issue in the campaign.

She will likely argue that it is to save tax payer dollars to avoid a potential lawsuit that could cost into the millions of dollars (if you believe Batsel's letter to the county). Citizens will see it as caving to James Dicks.

The question I have... if it is to save tax payer dollars, why vote to cancel the Right Rudder contract? There was potential for litigation there. Andy did say he would likely sue the county if they cancelled. But they continued on with that... and now the lawsuit costing tax payer dollars.

No issues with that contract cancellation. No "let us instate the contract and get to closing whenever you see fit"... although, in fairness, Right Rudder was not dangling a $6 million carrot... one that Davis seems particularly interested in to then buy property from Dicks to use for conservation. Not sure how that makes sense because in order to close, the county HAS to approve his project (if he wants them to).

In any case, I expect to see some fireworks with this. I do hope they get some kind of commitment out of Dicks to bring the project forward within X number of days, but even then, they would have to approve it.

Willing to bet that if this gets reversed today and Betz comes back to the board after August, then Betz is approved. If Bays loses, that likelihood only increases and would come before November.

Politics at its finest!