[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[4:17] I'm glad I'm clear.
[4:29] We can.
[4:32] Thank you.
[5:26] Recording in progress.
[5:41] All right. We're going to go back into session and turn the meeting over to the county manager, Jennifer Barker. Yes. Good evening, Madam Chair, commissioners. Tonight we are holding the first of two required public hearings prior to the adoption of the fiscal year 2027 budget. Before Jamie presents the budget information, I would like to highlight a few key points reflected in the proposed tentative budget.
[6:04] First, the milled rates.
[6:07] The milled rates remain generally unchanged from the current year with two exceptions.
[6:12] The wellness-way MSTU milled rate has been reduced by 61% below the rollback rate,
[6:19] reflecting the increase of 50% increase in the property values within the wellness-way MSTU boundaries.
[6:25] The public lands voted debt, MSTU Milidrate, has increased by .03 mils.
[6:34] This increase is necessary to fund the debt service associated with the $50 million public lands acquisition bond approved by the voters in 2024.
[6:44] The military in the current year was lower because it reflected the final payment on the voter approved debt originally established in 2007,
[6:53] which also funded the acquisition of public lands.
[6:57] The budget as presented funds all of the county departments, as well as the constitutional offices.
[7:04] The minimum wage for the county employees is increased by $1 per hour.
[7:09] As a result, all non-bargaining employees are receiving either a $1 per hour increase,
[7:16] or a 4% increase, which ever is greater to avoid compression.
[7:21] A total of $8.8 million has been allocated for road resurfacing projects in fiscal year
[7:28] 2027, and that includes $3.6 million allocated directly from the general fund.
[7:34] The general fund operating reserves are budgeted at 13.25% of the operating budget.
[7:41] By comparison, the fiscal year 2026 adopted budget included reserves of 11% of the operating
[7:48] budget.
[7:49] While we have not received a significant amount of reimbursements from FEMA for our hurricane relief efforts to date,
[7:57] we have realized higher interest earnings than anticipated, and we have also identified operational savings that have increased the reserve level from the prior year.
[8:08] Finally, I would like to thank the board for the support, and we'd like to extend my thanks to our county staff for all of their efforts in serving the residents of Lake County and
[8:17] and doing a lot of really hard work to prepare the budget this year.
[8:25] All right, Jamie.
[8:27] Hello, and good evening, Madam Chair and commissioners,
[8:30] Jamie Stewart, Management and Budget Director.
[8:36] Tonight, we are here for the first of two public hearings on the fiscal year 2027 budget
[8:41] that are required by Florida Statute.
[8:44] Just as a reminder, this is for the milleges and budget
[8:47] overseen by the Lay County Board of County Commissioners.
[8:50] If you need information for the public hearings for the school board or any other taxing authority in late county that information is available for you at the back of the room.
[9:00] The purpose of tonight's meeting is to present the proposed millage rates and their change from the rollback millage rates and the tentative budget for fiscal year 2027.
[9:12] By the state's definition, the rollback rate is the rate when applied to next year's tax base excluding new construction.
[9:19] will generate the same revenue as was raised in the previous year.
[9:25] The agenda for tonight will include the presentation of the proposed millage rates over the rollback rates and the presentation of the tentative budget for fiscal year 2027.
[9:35] I will then turn it over to the chairman to open the public hearing.
[9:40] Following the public hearing, the board will have four actions.
[9:43] Adopt the tentative millage rates for fiscal year 2027.
[9:46] adopt the changes to the recommended budget approval of the fiscal year 2027 tentative budget and
[9:54] finally approval of the public hearing date for the final adoption.
[10:00] First, I would like to review
[10:01] the property values. Here you will see the July 1st certified property values as provided by the
[10:07] property appraiser. The countywide millages which include the general fund, ambulance,
[10:12] Ms. TU water authority and public lands voted debt increased 8.78% over the current year values.
[10:20] The storm water rose in parks, Ms. TU increased 7.48% and the late county fire rescue
[10:26] Ms. TU increased by 8.58%.
[10:30] The largest increase in property value comes from the wellness way of 56.58%.
[10:36] The final property values for Fiscal Year 2027 will be available on October 1st.
[10:44] Chapters 129 and 200 of the Florida Statutes outline the procedures for
[10:49] the annual adoption of tax rates and budgets required that I identify the proposed
[10:54] milled rates for the 2027 fiscal year, as well as any adjustments the board will consider.
[11:00] The proposed fiscal year, late county general fund operating knowledge is 5.0254 mills, which is equal to the fiscal year 2026 rate and a 4.19% increase over the rollback rate of 4.8235 mills.
[11:18] The proposed fiscal year late county ambulance MSTU millage is 0.4629 mills, which is equal to the fiscal year 2026 rate, and a 4.21% increase over the rollback rate of 0.4442 mills.
[11:36] The proposed fiscal year 2027 late county fire rescue MSTU is 0.48 mils, which is equal to the fiscal year 2026 rate and a 4.6, excuse me, 4.8% increase over the rollback rate of 0.458 mils.
[11:55] The proposed fiscal year 2027 late county stormwater parks and roads,
[12:00] MSTU, millage 0.4957 mills, which is equal to the fiscal year 2026 rate.
[12:07] And a 5.18% increase over the rollback rate of 0.4713 mills.
[12:12] The proposed fiscal year 2027 late county, well in this way, MSTU,
[12:18] millage 0.1454 mills, which is less than the fiscal year 2026 rate.
[12:25] and is 61.2% decrease over the rollback rate of 0.374.
[12:32] The proposed fiscal year late county,
[12:35] fiscal year 2027, late county water authority mileage is 0.2940,
[12:42] which is equal to the fiscal year 2026 rate,
[12:44] and a 4.55% increase over the rollback tax rate of 0.2812 mills.
[12:51] Based on calculations by the Florida Department of Revenue's DR-420 certification of taxable value form,
[12:59] the current year proposed aggregate rate of 6.2311 is a 3.21% increase over the aggregate rollback rate of 6.0371.
[13:11] The last rate is the public land's voted debt milling, which does not figure into the rollback rate calculations as it was approved by a referendum.
[13:20] The proposed fiscal year 2027 public lands voted debt service millage is 0.0719 mills, which is 79.75% increase from the fiscal year 2026 adopted rate of 0.04.
[13:37] A
[13:41] proposed tentative budget, as presented, includes a general fund millage of 5.0254 mills for an estimated ad volume revenue of 37.1 million dollars.
[13:56] The approved project list for the infrastructure sales tax, fully funded judicial support and constitutional offices in county departments.
[14:04] This also includes a $17 minimum wage and wage adjustments for compression, and also reflects a general fund operating reserve total of $37.1 million up last year from $28.2 million and an operating reserve of $13.25%.
[14:29] Here are the department position requests for fiscal year 2027, which includes two new requests.
[14:35] There's an EMS battalion chief and a coding and quality review specialist, both are fire rescue.
[14:43] And their impacts are $221,263.
[14:47] Those are fully loaded positions.
[14:50] Now I'll turn it back over to the chairman to open for the public hearing.
[14:55] Okay all right so this is public hearing I see I've got someone
[15:00] Has called in online, and then I've got a couple cards here. And so we just ask that you limit your comments to three minutes. And the first one is Carl Yock.
[15:23] Carl Yock, I live in the fruitland park and the villages. Now I have a question. I received my tax information, but specifically the line item for the MSTU ambulance. First of all, I want to thank the Lake County
[15:38] for providing the information that I had requested a couple of months ago.
[15:42] Specifically, the fruitland park had a consent agreement and that consent agreement
[15:51] shall be effective until July 12, 2026.
[15:56] So in other words, that consent agreement has ended.
[15:59] I checked with the city manager of fruitland park and the city clerk and they said they're
[16:04] not aware of any renewal of that.
[16:06] So my question for you is, if that consent agreement which was extended in 2021 for five years,
[16:13] if it has ended, does that mean I shouldn't be charged that tax? Can you charge without tax approval
[16:20] by Fruitland Park? So yes, your legal folks would have to answer that one.
[16:27] Yeah, I'm going to defer to them to see whether they have any information about it.
[16:31] I know that I don't have any right with me.
[16:35] I'll have to look into that if we could get your information we can reach out to you.
[16:39] Okay.
[16:40] All right.
[16:45] All right.
[16:46] Connie.
[16:47] Earlbert.
[16:52] Good evening commissioners.
[16:56] I had planned on spending a lot more time working on this but the energy decided I didn't need
[17:02] that time.
[17:03] I was lucky to get my hair done before I got over here.
[17:08] But one of the things that I want to, I'm going to call it break because, or bitch, pick your, pick your verb, but I find out that, yes, we did increase the impact fees in 2023.
[17:25] Unfortunately, a lot of that more than half of it was defrared until October 1, 2026.
[17:34] So it turns out from 2008 when we had the recession,
[17:41] the builders got off scuff for it, it seems like.
[17:46] On a lot of back taxes that the general public picked up and paid for, correct me if I'm wrong.
[17:53] But that is exactly how it's described by GROC, is that.
[17:59] But following a study, they showed that the fees were substantially below-calculated need.
[18:09] And it goes on down below about how long a texture recover or actually get up to speed
[18:19] with this taxes, which is going to be October 1, 2026.
[18:24] And so I bring that up for one very big obvious reason that everybody on this board should
[18:30] be aware of is that we are going to have an economic financial crisis again.
[18:36] If it's not this year, it will be next year, but it will be.
[18:40] And so I would like to see that, you know, people's homes are not taxed even more.
[18:53] In fact, I think we're going to have to go backwards, so I'd kind of worn the board
[18:58] to maybe start the exercise of figuring out how we're going to make things work over the next 20 years
[19:08] because it's not going forward like this, we are what, even if amendment 3 does not pass,
[19:19] we still have the issue with the crash, either right, take your pick.
[19:29] We have someone online, if you could...
[19:33] Austin Hare, please unmute your line and state your name for the record.
[19:39] Hello, my name is Austin Hare.
[19:40] Are you ready to talk?
[19:42] Yes, please.
[19:45] Hi, good evening.
[19:46] My own three rental properties in Lake County on Watchlar Avenue and Guilford Road.
[19:50] Just with the proposed increase, my taxes would go up in additional $2,000 per year.
[19:57] And so, you just, you heard that the milledrate is not increasing and that is true,
[20:02] but it's also not the test.
[20:03] So, Florida statute 200.065 does not measure a tax increase against last year's tax rate.
[20:08] it measures it against the road back rate. The road back rate for the general fund is 4.825
[20:13] and you are proposing 5.025. That's a 4.19 percent tax increase and state law requires you to
[20:20] advertise it as one. Your slide shows total millage dropping 0.313. Every bit of that was wellness
[20:27] way going from 0.45 to 0.145 and wellness way is 928 million dollars of a 48.7 billion dollar tax
[20:36] less than 2%. So if you look at the own change column for every other line, the general fund zero, ambulance zero, fire zero, stormwater zero, water authority zero, there's no countywide decrease in the budget.
[20:50] So you already know that rising values should bring the rate down. You applied that rule to wellness way because it's values rose. Everyone else's values rose 8.7% and you're holding flat.
[21:00] Now, your own slide says the general fund role grew from $44.8 billion to $48.7 billion.
[21:07] The rollback rate only backs out 4.19 points of that.
[21:11] The rest is new construction, about $2 billion.
[21:13] And you keep every dollar of that at the rollback rate.
[21:16] That's $9.9 million in new general fund revenue.
[21:20] Rolling the general fund back to $4.82 cost $9.8 million.
[21:23] New construction more than pays for the entire rollback.
[21:26] You can adopt the rollback rate tonight and still have more money than you had last year.
[21:30] You are not choosing between a rollback and a budget cut.
[21:32] You're choosing to take the extra $9.8 million on top of the growth you already have.
[21:36] And you raise reserves from 11% to 13.25% this year on interest earnings, you did not expect
[21:42] in savings you found.
[21:43] So your policy ceiling is 12.
[21:45] You bank the windfall and you're still asking me for 4% more.
[21:48] On FEMA, that's a receivable, not a loss, I believe.
[21:52] The money is owed to you and it will arrive.
[21:53] A cash flow timing problem doesn't justify a permanent increase.
[21:56] millage compounds into the base every year.
[22:00] FEMA reimbursement arrives once.
[22:02] You know this can be done because it has been done here.
[22:03] Last year, North Lake Hospital District proposed
[22:05] the rate 16.6% over rollback
[22:08] than adopted the rollback rate at its hearing.
[22:11] I'm not contesting the voted debt,
[22:14] butters approved and it should be paid.
[22:16] But I adopt the rollback rates for the general fund,
[22:19] and that's 4.8235.
[22:22] Thank you.
[22:23] Thank you.
[22:25] any other callers online? No. Okay. All right.
[22:33] I'll bring it back to the board for discussion.
[22:38] I don't have any other cards on this first item.
[22:43] I do have one card on 28, which is after
[22:45] we finish the budget items. So just a, I mean, a couple comments that I'd like to make with
[22:52] regard to. Okay. Okay. You go ahead. Okay. So, um, on your operating reserves,
[23:01] it said we had a 13.25 million, but it includes the 3.6 million, uh, infrastructure, road
[23:13] infrastructure reserves. Yes, sir. So, is that 13.25 and 3.6 or minus the 3.6? So, we
[23:23] We really only have 12.75.
[23:26] The 13.25 is the percentage of the operating budget.
[23:32] The actual reserve amount is 37.1 million.
[23:36] 37.1 million, which includes a 3.6.
[23:39] Which includes the?
[23:40] Correct.
[23:41] Yes, without the 3.6, it's the 33 million.
[23:46] You're okay.
[23:47] So 37.1 minus the 3.6.
[23:52] Okay.
[23:53] That's all I have.
[23:53] question?
[23:54] Question about roads.
[23:57] So as we get more, we haven't gotten, how much have we not received, sorry, from FEMA
[24:03] yet for reimbursements back?
[24:05] We've only received approximately, we've spent 18 million on the hurricane since 2022.
[24:12] We've received approximately 4 million back total.
[24:16] Since what year?
[24:17] Since it's 2022.
[24:18] We've had hurricanes every year since 2022, the exception of last year, it's a total of 18 million spent.
[24:27] Right, because I want to balance, I want to grow the reserves, I think we all do, but also put more into road projects.
[24:35] So are we going to some kind of regular basis moving forward when we get to October 1st,
[24:41] the new year have chances to allocate more to roads?
[24:45] So we will have the mid-year adjustment, the first mid-year adjustment will be in January.
[24:51] So at that point we'll see where we finish the current fiscal year, but we have, if we
[24:57] have an additional revenue that came in that was unanticipated, or if we have FEMA reimbursements
[25:03] that we need to recognize.
[25:04] At that point the board is able to allocate those funds in any way that they need necessary.
[25:11] So whether it's for red projects or reserves or what have you.
[25:14] Okay, so just for the record, based off the conversation this morning, this morning's meeting with our staff presenting the road plan, I would obviously look forward to any opportunity this year, this coming year to allocate more towards road projects as we receive those sources coming back from FEMA or whatever they may be.
[25:35] So because there's, and I referenced this morning without going into all the details anybody that's listening can certainly pick up that presentation, but there's quite a gap in trying to make up for the funding of our roads and that's why we have a mistake and didn't we have our percentage of the female money coming back going to roads that we had that discussion.
[25:56] We had that discussion and it was discussed that I don't think it was laid it on a specific percentage
[26:03] But it was we were told that when it comes in to bring that back to the board to have that allocated as the board's off
[26:10] It right so we waited
[26:15] Almost five years and received four million. So what do we need to do to because we spent the money out
[26:22] So what do we need to do to get the money back?
[26:28] So we can reach out to, we have been in contact with FEMA weekly, I would say weekly, we have weekly meetings with FEMA with FEMA and the state because it goes through the state as well.
[26:41] If we want to speed up the process, we can certainly reach out to our lobbyist in Washington to have some meetings set up with FEMA directly.
[26:48] we did do that many years ago for Hurricane Irma.
[26:52] We had a long delay in getting our reimbursements back.
[26:56] We set up meetings in Washington and we actually had
[26:58] representation up in Washington to meet with FEMA representatives
[27:02] as well as both Senator Rubio at the time and Senator Scott.
[27:07] So I think that would be a direction I would like to see is we need to get this money back.
[27:12] And instead of having a weekly call, let's call every two, it's called twice a week.
[27:18] or every day? Are you calling on specific projects that you want or you'd call in
[27:25] gerality up? Are we going to get our money? No, they go over the specific projects documentation
[27:31] that's needed or lacking. Jamie, can you get into more specifics? Yes, anything that's pending.
[27:37] We do have a review with our representatives, both from FEMA and Florida PA. We meet with them.
[27:43] I actually talked to her about 10 minutes before I walk down here, so I got a little bit of a
[27:47] had started on you, there's $11.8 million that is outstanding right now, that's our total.
[27:53] We have $1.3 million that's already been reviewed by the state and validated, so
[27:59] we should have that hopefully, hopefully soon.
[28:03] I can get more number specifics, but 11.8 is the total that we're waiting on right now in various areas of approval.
[28:12] and are you seeing where we're locking in anything?
[28:17] I cannot, I can ask our grants department, if she can go any further.
[28:21] We respond very quickly any time they have a question for us or in need of receipts
[28:26] or to validate a project, anything like that, we respond immediately.
[28:33] And you guys probably remember too, while we were going through it, we were doing everything
[28:38] possible to do everything by the book so that we made sure that everything was documented
[28:42] We were doing everything the way that they required so that when this happened, we could show that we, you know,
[28:49] We need to start charging interest to
[28:52] Yeah
[28:54] But I think
[28:56] Getting them to pay it in here. I am curious. So, you know, how many other jurisdictions in the state of Florida are going through the same thing?
[29:03] Have the same hurricane that they still have, you know, outstanding amounts of
[29:09] If not all of them
[29:11] And then with the government shut down at the federal level for many, many months, that
[29:17] of course slowed down the entire process.
[29:19] Right.
[29:19] So you couldn't even have these discussions, because there was nobody there to have
[29:22] discussions with.
[29:24] So just one thing that Connie said that I'm not sure if I was clear on it, but I think you
[29:30] were talking about the impact.
[29:31] She was talking about the impact fees way back in 2008 when the recession happened and the
[29:36] crash.
[29:36] and there were no permits being issued very few permits.
[29:41] So you weren't, I've always made the argument that you weren't losing out on revenue from
[29:47] impact fees because you didn't have permits being issued for impact fees to be paid on.
[29:52] So those dichotomist or folks that like to make that argument, they don't have to do that.
[30:00] Actually, calculate in what was issued and the fact that the economy was struggling so badly that the hope was that at least something would be going on in the local economy to keep people working. So anyway, we're at our highest impact fee rate that we can be at currently. And staff will let us know when it's time to revisit that, whether we need to do a new study or what are percentages that we can increase to to make sure that we're
[30:29] We're charging the amount that we are allowed to charge by state law.
[30:33] Correct. And we will have to do the new study next year.
[30:36] So that will be during fiscal year 27.
[30:38] Okay. And we actually went above.
[30:40] We actually went above what was required because we had the unusual circumstances.
[30:46] Extraordinary, extraordinary circumstances that allow us to go even higher than the state.
[30:53] So we went as high as we possibly could.
[30:55] but now we're stuck for four years, right?
[30:58] But we go back into calculation next year.
[31:01] Right, yeah.
[31:02] And we were challenged on that actually
[31:03] by the development community.
[31:06] But one of the things I had asked staff to do
[31:10] and maybe at the next meeting we could go over is,
[31:12] I was wanting to have a short synopsis
[31:16] of all of the different funding sources
[31:18] like on an annual basis that go into transportation needs
[31:22] So that we're, you know, actually seeing the dollar amounts every year, I mean, today we saw projects that are on the five-year plan, ones that are being worked on, ones that will be worked on over the next five years.
[31:32] But just to get, you know, a short explanation so that when we are speaking to members of the public about how we fund transportation and where the funding sources come from, we can actually show, you know, these amount of dollars come in every year from gas taxes, for example.
[31:48] they go to resurfacing or maintenance or mowing or stormwater issues which ones are allocated for
[31:55] capital projects whether it's sales tax money, impact fee money, federal grants, state grants,
[32:01] and just to have it all in one place to look at and because a lot of times we hear from folks that
[32:08] well I don't see anything happening well there's projects going on constantly mowing that's going on
[32:13] constantly repairs, maintenance, resurfacing, so it really does help to have that information
[32:19] to point to, and I know that public works staff had indicated they were going to be doing
[32:26] more regular updates to let us know, you know, every couple weeks to once a month, like
[32:32] here are the things that are happening.
[32:33] I would like to see that on the county website so that people can see where projects are
[32:37] actually occurring and track them.
[32:40] But that's obviously transportation is a big issue and I think when we have our workshop
[32:48] and coming months retreat, we can talk more about strategies for trying to put pressure
[32:57] on the state to help us maybe with new funding formulas or different ways to get money back
[33:03] to local governments to take care of our roads.
[33:08] And when you're doing that data, I would also encourage you to have all the sources that we get for transportation that we could allocate on a simple graph and in the cost that's going to be required to meet all those needs and you'll see a growing delta, if you will, gap to as I just think the residents need to see that it's a math problem currently.
[33:29] I think the state legislatures need to see that it's a delta and that it's a matter of law and that it's a problem all over the state of Florida.
[33:36] So I think that's really who needs the case needs to be made to because the money's not going to come locally because it's simply not something that you can catch up on.
[33:43] It's something that has to be tackled at a state level and a reason.
[33:49] I don't disagree.
[33:50] Yeah, I just, people think it's something we can do.
[33:55] All is all us.
[33:56] But there is, there is, those issues about previous gaps
[34:04] and unfunded mandates and things that we've got to keep up with.
[34:07] So the magic wand is to go borrow what, $700 million,
[34:12] to get all the food infrastructure done.
[34:14] And think about that.
[34:14] I think they want to pay that back.
[34:16] I don't think the public would want to pay it.
[34:17] But think about that, that would be like county roads.
[34:19] That wouldn't be state roads.
[34:20] Exactly.
[34:20] So you'd still have deficiencies all over the county
[34:22] that would be state roads.
[34:23] So the problems are.
[34:24] So yeah, it's just one part of the equation.
[34:29] I think that I just want to thank staff
[34:31] for the presentations, very thorough, appreciate it.
[34:34] I know the concern is always we want the taxes to go down,
[34:37] but the cost keep going up for the things
[34:39] that we have to pay for.
[34:40] And whether it's salaries, meeting minimum wage,
[34:44] age, compression, the things that we talked about tonight, just the cost of goods and services.
[34:49] Those are the things that we're trying to keep up with, and it's not just our county government,
[34:54] our county department budget.
[34:56] We're funding the constitutional officers, the sheriff, the supervisor elections, the tax collector,
[35:02] the property appraiser, the clerk, aspects of the clerk's budget.
[35:06] So there's a lot that goes into the budget and it all comes back to the actual cost,
[35:11] the cost of providing the service.
[35:13] and I think we're trying really hard to be lean but keeping up with the increases
[35:20] and costs is the challenge. So with that and we have no other, now Commissioner
[35:27] Savitini is on the line. Yes. Okay, so I don't know if he wanted any comments to
[35:31] make or wanted to wait until we took our... No comments so I agree with all the
[35:36] comments. Thank you very much and good privacy. All right, so this is the requested
[35:42] action is the approval of the tentative military for 2027. We can make that as one motion.
[35:51] Excuse me. You can make it as one motion or you can vote on them individually.
[35:59] All right,
[35:59] do we have a motion on the floor?
[36:06] Move approval. Move to approve their current
[36:08] rates. Second. All right. We have a first. We have a second. Any further discussion?
[36:13] Yep, I have a question on the fire rescue MSTU this does not, is this the, um, include the?
[36:22] This is not fire assessment. This is just the, the millage. All right. All right. We have a motion. We have second all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That passes unanimously?
[36:36] That was an aye. That was an aye. Yeah. Thank you. No, I was, I was in favor. Sorry. It's like a slight delay, but I was in favor of that.
[36:43] That was a yes.
[36:44] Thanks.
[36:45] All right.
[36:46] The moving on to the.
[36:47] All right.
[36:47] The budget.
[36:48] Since the approval of the recommended budget in July, there has been various changes starting
[36:53] with the county departments and offices.
[36:56] We've updated the fund balance and revenue projections.
[37:01] The infrastructure sales tax approved project list, the updated tax collector budget request,
[37:07] the updated capital project rebudgets at $35.7 million.
[37:11] in the incorporated purchase order carry forward estimates are $85.6 million.
[37:18] The grant awarded adjustments at $21.4 million and other miscellaneous changes and adjustments for $213,000.
[37:28] Now for the requested action.
[37:31] We are requesting approval to adopt the changes from the previous page to the fiscal year 2027 recommended budget,
[37:37] The totaling $150,000,000, $80,000, $143.00.
[37:52] Who's your first?
[37:54] Second.
[37:55] All right.
[37:56] We have a first noise.
[37:57] Have a second.
[37:57] I called for cards earlier.
[38:00] We don't have any other cards.
[38:01] I just want to make clear that we had the public hearing open.
[38:04] If there's anyone else that wishes to speak.
[38:07] All right.
[38:08] We have a motion to second on the floor.
[38:09] All in favor say aye.
[38:11] Aye.
[38:11] Any opposed?
[38:13] Commissioner Sabatini, you said aye.
[38:15] Correct?
[38:15] Aye.
[38:15] All right, that's 5-0, moving on to the tentative budget.
[38:22] Yes, ma'am.
[38:23] Next we have the requested approval to adopt the fiscal year 2027 tentative budget, totaling
[38:28] $1,109,315,071 dollars.
[38:38] Move approval.
[38:40] All right.
[38:42] Second.
[38:44] All right.
[38:44] We have a first.
[38:45] We have a second.
[38:46] Any further discussion?
[38:47] All in favor say aye.
[38:49] Aye.
[38:49] Any opposed?
[38:50] All right, that approves the tentative budget.
[38:53] I am favor.
[38:55] Lastly, I have the requested action to approve the days to hold the public hearing for final adoption of the fiscal year 2027 milled rates and budget on September 22nd, 2026 at 505 PM or soon thereafter as possible in the Board of County Commissioners Chambers 315 West Main Street to varies Florida.
[39:17] do we have a motion to set that date and time?
[39:20] I'll leave a proof.
[39:22] Second.
[39:23] All right, all in favor say aye.
[39:25] Aye.
[39:26] Commissioner Sabatini.
[39:27] Aye, in favor.
[39:29] Okay, that passes 5-0.
[39:32] All right, that concludes our budget items, and now we have our next tab, and I'll turn
[39:37] that over to the county attorney.
[39:40] Okay, this will be an ordinance of the Board of County Commissioners of Lake County, Florida,
[39:43] Support us suspending the acceptance of development applications for data centers, data center facilities and data center utilities within unincorporated Lake County.
[39:50] Providing for severability, providing for inclusion in the code, providing for
[39:53] filing department, state, and providing for an effective date.
[39:55] This is your second and final reading.
[39:57] If you approve this today, I'll become 2026-43.
[40:01] And if you recall at your first reading, the motion at the time was to reduce this from a one year suspension to a 90 day suspension.
[40:09] direction, directing staff to bring back a ordinance to create a CUP process within
[40:14] that 90-day timeframe. So again, this will be the 90-day suspension of acceptance of
[40:19] applications if you approve it tonight.
[40:24] Move to approve.
[40:26] Second.
[40:27] All right. This is the public hearing. I'm going to open up the floor, anyone that wishes
[40:30] to speak on this topic.
[40:35] Yes, I'm going to, you do have a card here, tab 28.
[40:39] I
[40:42] finished up my thoughts on this from last week.
[40:45] I started off in that direction and forgot what I was going to say, which was that I had
[40:54] to have my license renewed a few years ago and I required like 40 years with the documents.
[41:00] I was livid, well turns out after the 2020 election, I was doing some election integrity
[41:09] investigation on loan, and I discovered that there were seven companies that the state
[41:15] of Florida allowed full access to the driver's license state base.
[41:22] Some of those were very benign, but the one that caught my attention was Lexus Nexus, most
[41:30] of you know what that is.
[41:33] their parent company is in London, so basically everybody's information in this whole room
[41:41] has been public information for who knows how long.
[41:46] And now I'm understanding there's 70 companies now that have access to that database
[41:51] that they should not have, but I digress.
[41:55] the Internet is forever and AI should not happen. I have a feeling that we'll be coming back
[42:04] in some other form at some later date but this is as good as we can get for now as just say no.
[42:17] Okay, let's see. Do we have anyone else? I don't have any other cards. I don't see anyone else online
[42:22] so we can go back to the motion to approve and this puts a pause on
[42:27] And processing or accepting any applications for data centers while we work on a conditional
[42:35] use permit process or other application process where we would define parameters.
[42:45] So in this document it says the purpose of this ordinance is allow Lake County sufficient
[42:50] time to review study and whole public hearings prepare and adopt amendments or amendments to
[42:55] the land development regulations and code of ordinances related to data center, data center,
[43:00] center facilities and data center utilities.
[43:03] That would be the only reason why I am going to approve of this one because it's given
[43:12] us time to get all the facts.
[43:14] There's still hasn't been a delineation of what is actually as a data center.
[43:18] And I hope that we can come up with the definition of a data center because most people again are worried about water usage and power usage and to me, a data center is three or four servers or higher.
[43:35] So I'm okay with this ordinance as long as we can get it done in 90 days with a solid answer of what actually is our cut off.
[43:45] Yeah, and I think you're right there with me because you're more of water and power usage
[43:51] and it's like with everybody else's.
[43:53] Yeah, I want to thank staff.
[43:56] I mean, we've already provided some suggestions just as any of us could do on anything with staff and work on them.
[44:02] And one of them is a quite lengthy definition proposed definition of data center which I think is right.
[44:07] You have to define it first in the definition section of the code.
[44:11] and then you would hit probably 3.14 with the CUP, which looks like they're well on their way.
[44:18] I know they got a lot to do, but you're well on your way to getting a nice code done within 90 days, so I appreciate that.
[44:31] I agree with both commissioners.
[44:34] We need to make sure that we do have it all done within the 90 days.
[44:39] He said, not possibly the CUP, but we need to know where we're headed.
[44:45] And I'm not one for moratoriums or suspensions, whatever you want to call it, it's just bad
[44:50] business in my book.
[44:52] But 90 days should give us enough time to do research on this.
[44:55] Yes.
[44:57] We know that with the Florida statute that
[45:00] There is a requirement for a conditional use permit for what they define as large load data centers. So in my mind, I'm anticipating that we come back with like different thresholds. And they are tied back to the electricity usage. And you know, based on the things that I've seen and I've read, it's hard for me to fathom a scenario in Lake County where we could actually accommodate a large
[45:29] Low data center, when I look at where our lakes are, where our rural lands are, where our cities are at, and so forth.
[45:37] I understand the concern from an economic development standpoint.
[45:40] You don't want to send a message out that we're anti-business, but at the same time, it's really hard for me to find a messinaria where one of these would fit within the land masses that we have in Lake County and still be able to protect our water, our electricity and our quality of life.
[45:58] But I'm keeping an open mind at this point, but I'm 100% in favor of this suspension while we gather more information.
[46:08] Yeah, and I just, because we, you know, had a couple questions about this and at least what I've provided staff, I think we talked about this maybe the last meeting.
[46:15] But, you know, a CUP process is good because it's going to say right up front that a data center is not a guaranteed right.
[46:24] Right, so when you have the traditional Euclidean zoning and the standard zoning that we have,
[46:29] there might be people work around and things that people can do.
[46:32] So like you, the chair, it would be a pretty extensive process that they have to prove that it's going to be right for us, but it gives us the ability to turn it down.
[46:43] And you say you didn't show us the data, will you do, that they might have presented the data to staff on water use, or maybe it was fuzzy, but
[46:52] but they presented enough to get to the hearing,
[46:55] but we're able to say we don't believe it
[46:57] and we don't see a fit for it here.
[47:00] I think the most important part of this is this concern
[47:03] that a zoning that already exists or a land use
[47:06] that already exists would create a right.
[47:08] And I think that's what you're referring to.
[47:09] Yes.
[47:10] Is that by creating a process,
[47:12] you're saying that land use or that zoning
[47:14] doesn't in and of itself create a right.
[47:17] And that's why we have to come up with criteria.
[47:19] Then the key is going to be
[47:21] whether they can actually prove that they meet the criteria needed to protect the quality
[47:25] of life, the water, the, you know, all of the other things that we've heard that can
[47:29] negatively affect the surrounding community.
[47:33] So.
[47:33] And the most significant point of it is that any of these data centers would have to come in
[47:40] front of us, which is in front of the public.
[47:42] Yeah.
[47:42] Yeah.
[47:43] Oh, it's complete transparency in that part.
[47:45] So, well, it will be more knowledgeable in how to ask the questions.
[47:48] what kind of use, water uses, what would you have?
[47:53] What kind of electric uses would you have?
[47:55] And at least we'll have standards to look at,
[47:58] and understand if it's going to be a benefit
[48:00] or a detriment to our community.
[48:03] Exactly, but it may be something that's smaller, too,
[48:07] that is within a business, maybe doesn't use water at all,
[48:10] because the technology is changing like six months from now.
[48:13] I mean, data, you might have,
[48:14] there might not be any water required for some data centers.
[48:18] And no electrical fuel on muskets is why they're going to be doing it in space.
[48:22] I mean, they're looking at that.
[48:25] But there's a little bit of flexibility in the sense that you're not going to discourage
[48:29] so maybe somebody that is going to do the right thing and needs it for their business.
[48:35] Okay, Commissioner Sabatini, you're online.
[48:36] Did you want to say anything? I know you made a motion.
[48:40] No comments. I agree with all my colleagues. I'm in favor of the motion.
[48:45] All right, so we have a motion and who made the second?
[48:48] I do second.
[48:49] All right, Commissioner Parks made the second, sorry he already made the second.
[48:52] Okay.
[48:53] All right, is there any further discussion?
[48:57] All in favor say aye.
[48:58] Aye.
[48:59] Any opposed?
[49:00] Commissioner Savage, aye.
[49:02] That passes 5-0.
[49:04] All right.
[49:04] Well thank you, thank you to staff.
[49:06] Thank you for pulling that together.
[49:08] A lot of things are moving very quickly these days and there's requiring quick
[49:14] turn around in a lot of different areas. And I just want to thank staff, thank thank everyone
[49:19] for being here tonight, thank you to members of the public for being here. And we appreciate
[49:24] all your hard work on behalf of the residents of Lake County. All right, with that then we stand
[49:32] and determined.