The meeting began and ended with important discussions that highlight the on-going discord with the current Board of County Commissioners. Residents have expressed their desire to see some of these disagreements put aside so the Commissioners can get on with the business of the County. Read on for more information.
Mental Health Awareness Month
Commissioner Sarah Arnold presented the Proclamation for Mental Health Awareness Month. Accepting the proclamation were representatives from families and organizations working with Mental Health issues in the community.
Watch the Proclamation presentation here: Mental Health Awareness Month
Learn more about two of the organizations at these links: Patients not Prisoners and SMA Healthcare
As someone who has seen first hand what mental health struggles can do to a family, I’m grateful for organizations like these and the Proclamation for Mental Health Awareness.
Public Safety Telecommunicators Week
The second proclamation of the day was for National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. Appropriately presented by Commissioner Murphy, who began his law enforcement career in this field, this proclamation recognizes the work done by the dedicated folks who answer the call to 911, handling over 414,000 incoming and outgoing calls in St. Johns County last year.
You can watch the presentation here: Public Safety Telecommunicators Week
There were no additions or deletions to the Consent Agenda and it was approved.
Regular Agenda
Regular Agenda Item 1 – Request for Reimbursement of Attorney’s Fees.
Commissioner Joseph is requesting reimbursement of her attorney fees incurred when she filed suit against the Florida State’s Attorney and the County Commissioners. See the slides for more details on the events.
Following her attorney’s presentation, Commissioner Joseph asked if she was ever going to be put in jail. The attorney responded that at one point there were law enforcement vehicles outside her home in early morning hours and that caused her to worry that there would be a predawn raid. The attorney contacted the State’s Attorney’s office to discuss arranging a surrender for her arrest so that her husband would not be left without care. The State’s Attorney would not have the discussion.
Commissioner Taylor made a motion to move funds from the General Reserve fund and approve the amount of $139,005 in attorney’s fees for Commissioner Joseph. Commissioner Joseph seconded the motion.
After public comment, there were questions from the other Commissioners. Some of the questions and answers are paraphrased here:
Q – Has Commissioner Joseph paid this bill?
Answer – No, she still owes the attorney so the request is for the county taxpayers to pay the attorney’s fees for Commissioner Joseph
Q – What gave Commissioner Joseph the impression that there was going to be a pre-dawn raid?
Answer – There were law enforcement cards idling outside her house in the pre-dawn hours an that gave her concern. There was never any verification about why the law enforcement cars were outside of her home and never an arrest. She did believe they were there at the direction of the State’s Attorney’s Office.
Q – Why is Commissioner Joseph pursuing the County to reimburse her rather than the State’s Attorney’s Office which was pursuing the prosecution after the County Commissioners were dismissed from the lawsuit.
Answer – She is seeking reimbursement because these were fees incurred as part of her public duty.
Commissioner Murphy noted during discussions that the taxpayer is getting the bill both ways – to defend the Commissioners and to reimburse Commissioner Joseph for her fees.
Commissioner Murphy questioned the amount being requested and referred to an amount of $110,242 that had been deemed to be a “reasonable fee” and said he would support an amended motion for that amount. He would not support the total requested without an itemized bill for that amount.
Commissioner Arnold also asked about itemized bills and questioned the request being a reimbursement when the bill has not yet been paid. She would like for the topic to come back with more information in the request.
Commisioner Taylor amended her motion to $110,000, it was seconded by Commissioner Murphy and passed 3-2 with Arnold and Whitehurst being the No votes.
You can watch the presentation here: Agenda Item 1 – Reimbursement of Legal Fees
Agenda item 2 – The Shell at St. Augustine -a project to benefit local arts, culture and heritage organizations, provide a pathway to sustainability for the participating non-profits, increase tourism dollars for St. Johns County and enrich quality of life for local residents.
The organization has funding to build the building and are looking for a location to build. Consensus from the Board was for staff to work with the organization to help finding a location for this facility.
Watch the presentation here: The Shell
Agenda item 3 – Dog and Bog withdrawal of request. The applicants have determined they cannot develop the project and have located a local partner, Habitat for Humanity of St. Johns County, who are in discussions to purchase the project. Habitat for Humanity CEO Malinda Everson confirmed that Habitat is in the due diligence phase of moving forward with the purchase.
(Disclosure: I currently serve as the Treasurer on the Habitat for Humanity Board and did vote affirmatively to move forward with this purchase, dependent upon the outcome of the due diligence.)
Agenda Item 5 – change order to Phase 1 Design-Build Agreement for Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for Design-Build services for Silverleaf Fire Station #22 and Sheriff’s Operations Center. This was an item to process a change order to include Early Works in the project at a cost of $2,288,800. Approved unanimously
Agenda Item 6 – Amendment for Early Works packages for Central Community and Community Sportsplex Parks. Approved unanimously
Agenda Items 7– Appointment to the Housing Finance Authority. Robin Pfalzgraf was appointed unanimously.
Agenda Item 8 – County Attorney Agreement for Legal Services.
After discussion on the agreement and minor modifications, it was approved 3-2 (Taylor and Joseph being no votes.)
Once approved, Commissioner Joseph expressed her concern about signing the contract without confirmation that there would be no criminal repercussions. Attorney Kommando indicated there was no reason he knows of that she could not sign the agreement but if she were uncomfortable, she could delegate to someone else. She stated that is what she would do.
The agreement can be found here: County Attorney’s Legal Agreement
You can watch the video here: Discussion on County Attorney Agreement
Commissioner’s reports
Commissioner Whitehurst – Congratulations to the Gators on recent athletic wins. Very impressed with his tour of Saint Augustine Youth Services (SAYS) and recommended all commissioners should take that tour. Learn more about SAYS here: SAYS Website
Commissioner Whitehurst also shared a recap of his recent visits to Tallahassee and all the legislators he met with while in Tallahassee pursuing actions and funding on behalf of St. Johns County.
And concluded with Happy Easter to all those who celebrate
Commissioner Arnold – Also shared an update on the visits to Tallahassee. Taking off her Commissioner hat for a moment, she spoke about bills moving through the House and Senate right now that could potentially result in loss of funding to special programs in St. Johns County included IP, AP, AICE, CTE and Dual Enrollment programs. She encouraged all parents to do their own research, come to their own conclusions and reach out to the legislators if they are so inclined.
Commission Taylor – Shared an update on her visits to Tallahassee. She asked for clarification about the bill related to funding for the IGP and I-95 interchange. Senator Leek had pointed out that this item was number 6 on the priority list and she wanted clarification to Senator Leek that it is one the County’s Top priorities. She talked about a letter requesting the funding and wanted to include in the letter that the county is requesting $10 Million dollars in federal funding.
See previous post about the requested appropriations for IGP and I-95 improvements here: Florida Legislative Appropriations Process Blog
Commissioner Murphy – Shared he was wearing his Autism Awareness hat he got while attending a recent Re-Certification class with Old Town Trolley Tours.
He asked for consensus to direct staff to review some standing committees that have been inactive for some time. This will come back to the Board as an Agenda item.
He also talked about the trips to Tallahassee and the importance of the Commissioners going to Tallahassee and developing relationships that will allow them to bring home more money from Tallahassee. In order to meet the goal of a tax rollback, the county must have money from Tallahassee.
Commissioner Joseph raised a point that when they were in Tallahassee, Commissioners Arnold and Whitehurst were meeting with the legislators separately from Commissioners Joseph, Murphy, and Taylor. This devolved into a bit of a debate between Commissioners Joseph and Whitehurst that is worth watching at the link below.
Commissioner Joseph asked about updating the letter to Senator Leek about funding for the IGP-I-95 exchange. County Administrator Andrews explained that there are very careful discussions with Congressman Rutherford’s office about what that number might be and they do not want to submit a number that has not been agreed to by his office. (Again reference the process outlined in the link to a previous blog post above.)
Commissioner Joseph also sent Happy Anniversary wishes to her husband on their 35th Anniversary on April 16.
Watch the Reports here for more context and detail: Commissioner’s Reports
County Administrator’s Report
Administrator Andrews expressed appreciation to the Board for Rich Kommando’s contract and expressed that this is the most impressive legal team they have had at the county during her tenure. She also had the Director of Growth Management Mike Roberson provide an update on the Comprehensive Plan timeline.
Administrator Andrews provided an update on the situation with Indianhead Biomass. A letter was issued to the business with code violations. The county is working with them to address the violations. She shared that the company does provide a valuable service to the county as they are the only vendor who addresses our biomass collection. They are still awaiting results of a study to determine if the odor violates current standards but are also talking with the company to bring down the odors.
County Attorney’s Report
Attorney Kommando pointed out to the Board that there are more than Appropriations of concern in Tallahassee this session including bills concerning condo associations and local preemptions. Deputy Attorney Kealey West thanked the Board for the decision about Attorney Kommando, commenting that he has been here for a year, guiding through a tumultuous time and they office looks forward to his continued leadership.
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Beth Tate 