>> Good morning.
Welcome to the Tuesday August 4th,
board of County Commission meeting.
In a moment I will introduce our guest for the invocation.
Following the invocation and pledge,
the Communications Division Director Doctor Jeff Williamson
will read a proclamation recognizing Purple Heart Day
and introduce the Naco Achievement Awards.
Reverend Alexander H Smith, also Commissioner Smith,
is a lifelong educator, minister, community leader,
and public servant.
Whose career has been dedicated to faith, education,
and service.
Born in Thomasville Georgia, he accepted Christ
at the age of seven and has called Central Florida
home since 1965.
A graduate of Florida A&M University
with a bachelor's degree in agricultural education
and a minor in horticultural science, Reverend Smith devoted
40 years to education, including 39 years in Orange County Public
schools.
Throughout his distinguished teaching career
he received numerous honors for educational excellence
and served in leadership roles at the local, state and national
levels and held the positions of the president of the Florida
Association of Agricultural Educators.
President of the Orange County Association
of Agricultural Educators for 21 years.
And president of the Florida FFA Board of Directors.
In 2022 he was inducted into the Florida FFA Hall of Fame.
Reverend Smith has also demonstrated an unwavering
commitment to civic leadership.
He served eight years on the City Council.
Represented the community on numerous advisory boards.
Continues to serve Orange County Public Schools
through its Advisory Housing board.
He is also the project manager for the Grand East Village
Senior Housing Development.
Which is currently under construction.
A respected faith leader, Reverend Smith served for 18
years as a associate pastor of new Hope Missionary Baptist
Church, before being installed as pastor on October 22nd, 2023.
He remains actively involved in several ministerial
organizations throughout Central Florida.
His leadership extends nationally through Prince Hall
Freemasonry.
Where he has held numerous prestigious offices.
Including, most worshipful Grand Master of Florida and President
of the General Grand Masonic Congress of USA.
Is also the founder of the Prince Hall Scholarship
and Economic Development Foundation
and has been recognized with numerous national Masonic Honors
including the induction into the US Masonic Hall of Fame.
Reverend Smith is married to his wife Linda
and together they are blessed with five children.
14 grandchildren.
And five great grandchildren.
His life and ministry continue to be guided
by his favorite scripture.
Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature.
Reverend Smith, please join us for prayer.
Thank you so much.
[Applause]
>> Let us pray.
Our heavenly father, thank you for this new day.
Thank you for the gift of freedom to come together today.
We ask for God now that you would bless these county
commissioners.
Oh God that you would give them the discernment that may
make them make wise decisions.
That you would bless all endeavors and all
they shall say and do.
Bless this community.
We thank You and thy son Jesus.
Amen.
>> 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.
>> Thank you very much.
Thank you very much Reverend Smith.
As the vice mayor said, we do have
one proclamation for today and then one special presentation.
The proclamation that we have today is for Purple Heart Day.
Purple Heart Day, the proclamation reads,
whereas August 7th, 1782, General George Washington,
then the commander in chief of the Continental Army established
a Purple Heart Award, originally designated as the Badge
of Military merit, as a sign of appreciation and gratitude
towards those who served during wartime.
Whereas Purple Heart recipients, men and women of extraordinary
courage, have offered the highest form of devotion
to our nation, having faced the harshest of battles,
endure the most grueling conditions,
and borne the scars of conflict, all in the name of liberty
and justice, and whereas August 7th is a day for Americans
to remember the men and women who bravely represented
their country and were wounded or killed while serving,
and were decorated with the Purple Heart in the name
of the president.
And whereas it is important not only to remember and thank
the brave young men and women who have been wounded in combat
but also how they are taken care of when they return home,
including acknowledgment of their unique needs as veterans.
Whereas for as long as U.S. Service
members placed their life on the line
against the nation's enemies, the Purple Heart Medal
honors their sacrifice and carries
the legacy of George Washington and his ideals
and honoring contributions of volunteers and those
putting their lives in danger.
A hallmark of the U.S. Armed Forces.
And whereas it is the desire of the Orange County
Board of Commissioners to recognize
the many members of the general Bob Betts, chapter 400, Military
Order of the Purple Heart who reside in Orange County Florida
and have received the Purple Heart recognition of wounds
sustained in combat, including those
who have made the ultimate sacrifice with their lives.
Now therefore, mayor Jerry, by virtue of authority vested
in him, Orange County Mayor does hereby proclaim Friday,
August 7th, 2026, as Purple Heart Day in Orange County.
For the sacrifices Purple Heart recipients
have made in defending and preserving our freedoms.
Done in order this fourth day of August,
2026, signed by the mayor and all five members of the Board
of County Commissioners.
Accepting the proclamation is David Mercado.
Mr. Mercado is the commander of chapter 400 Military
Order of the Purple Heart.
Mr. Mercado?
[Applause]
>> Good morning commissioners.
Folks here today.
I accept that proclamation in honor of all of our veterans
who have served throughout all conflicts and skirmishes
throughout the entire world.
And to all Gold Star parents and families who are present
and who are not present.
We must remember that our men and women have served
this entire country and sacrificed their lives
throughout the world.
We had 460 000 members in World War Two killed,
sacrificed their lives in defense of America and freedom.
We've also had more than 1.1 million members who received
Purple Hearts in World War Two.
In the Korean War we had 36,000 members killed.
Sacrificing their lives for this great nation.
And more than 100,000, 100 Wounded in that war of Korea.
In Vietnam we had more than 250 000 members killed in that war
in Vietnam.
Excuse me.
36.
We had 36,000 killed in Korea.
And we've had 55 double 58,000 members killed in the war
in Vietnam.
And 352 wounded in that war in Vietnam.
This is how far we have gone to risk our lives
and sacrifice our lives for this great country.
We have just celebrated 250 years of independence.
And we will continue to sacrifice and defend
this great nation.
We have to keep in thought our members who
are serving throughout the world, right now.
So they can be safe and we can continue enjoying
the freedom we have here.
Freedom is not free.
Thank you very much for being present
and have a good day, ladies and gentlemen.
[Applause]
>> Grab a picture first with Mr. Mercado alone.
Then we'll ask the members to take a picture as well.
I'll write, gentleman, would you mind?
Ladies and gentlemen, would you mind joining for a photograph,
please?
And hang on one more second.
Members of the mayor's council, please.
If you wouldn't mind grabbing a photograph as well.
Let's give our men and women a round of applause.
Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen.
And a quick shout out to Shelly Wong who manages the Veterans
Advisory Council.
Thank you Shelly for the hard work you do.
Appreciate you Shelly.
Yes sir, you're welcome.
All right now it's time for another very
special presentation.
Your county employees, ladies and gentlemen,
are busy and doing great things.
And in return they have won many awards for their hard work
from the National Association of Counties or Naco.
I'm going to call on Jane, the communications manager,
to present those awards at this time.
Jane?
>> Thank you Jeff.
Good morning everyone, commissioners,
Commissioner to be.
Senior staff.
Orange County employees and guests.
And I know Mayor Demings is watching from afar.
Today we're going to celebrate something truly special.
33 awards were earned by the Orange County government
Departments and Division and recognition
of outstanding public service, innovation, and excellence.
These honors come from the National Association
of Counties or Naco.
The nation's leading organization representing
county governments.
Each year Naco recognizes the best and most innovative county
programs across the country.
Receiving a Naco Award means Orange County's work
is being recognized among the very best in the nation.
Every program we recognize today reflects our employees
commitment to serving residents and making
Orange County a great place to live, work and thrive.
Let's get started with our community and family services
winners.
There's 11 of them.
County Administrator Books is here.
Vice Mayor Kelly Martinez summer had.
Let's go ahead with our first one.
The Credible Messengers Naco Award.
[Applause]
as I read this, will all commissioners please come down
and stand with our recipients.
Thank you.
Orange County Governments the first agency
to employ credible messengers.
Trusted community leaders who support youth
impacted by the justice system.
Since implementation, the initiative
has contributed to reduction in violent juvenile crime.
Congratulations.
[Applause]
We want you to stand on the other side. (laughs)
Next up, it would be our domestic violence transportation
mini grant initiative.
The domestic violence transportation mini grant
initiative removes a critical barrier for survivors
by providing safe, reliable transportation through trusted
nonprofit partners.
In 2025, the program provided over 500 rides
for 170 domestic violence survivors and for pets.
Helping them connect families to shelters, medical care,
and other essential services.
Well done.
[Applause]
Next up is a small scale citizens review panel which
is another big award winner.
Orange county's small scale Citizens Review panel fund
distribution process expands access
to public funding for grassroots organizations.
And nonprofits Pinkston's implementation
has funded 52 organizations, distributed more than $5
million, and helped nearly 90% of the recipients
receive county funding for the very first time.
Excellent.
[Applause]
orange county's community navigation initiative.
The community navigation and real time services connection
initiative brings services directly to residents,
to community ambassadors, and engagement managers.
The program has connected more than 5400 residents
to resources peered through proactive outreach.
Resulting in nearly 2500 service referrals.
Great job, everyone.
[Applause]
all right.
Next up is Orange County mayor's public sector Academy.
Orange County partnered with Careersource of Central Florida
to host the mayor's Public Sector Career Academy.
It introduces high school students
to careers in local government.
Through a month long paid summer program.
Since its launch, the Academy has served 90 students
with four participants hired by the county and many more who
want to return to the county to work for Orange County
government.
Congratulations.
[Applause]
And thank you Careersource, so much, for partnering with us.
Next up is Orange County's capacity building initiative.
Our citizens Commission for children,
in partnership with UCF, strengthened grassroots
nonprofit through an initiative to improve
financial management and organizational effectiveness.
From 2023 to 2025 more than 100 organizations
participated, achieving a 38% increase in overall competency
and building a stronger pipeline for sustainable, community
service.
Excellent job, everyone.
[Applause]
Orlando collected his next.
To celebrate the city of Orlando's 150th anniversary,
the Orange County Regional History Center created Orlando
Collective.
And exhibition featuring 100 rarely seen
artifacts from the Historical Society of Central Florida.
Curated with input from community members
and local leaders, the exhibition
inspired residents to connect with and help preserve
our region's shared history.
Thank you.
[Applause]
I know this is something near and dear to commissioners.
The Lake Apopka Connector Trail.
The 10 million Lake Apopka Connector Trail
was completed in February.
Adding 3.3 miles of multi-use path
that links the West Orange Trail to the North Shore Trail.
To complete 48 Mile Lake Apopka Loop Trail
now connects Orange and Lake counties.
Our Parks and Recreation wanted to give a big shout out
to Public Works, engineering, highway construction,
and transportation planning, for all the teamwork
it took to make the Lake Apopka Connector Trail.
Good job, everyone.
[Applause]
Next up is our pollination.
Integrating public art, agriculture, and nutrition.
This is a mobile teaching kitchen,
with agricultural science and nutrition education.
It improved food literacy, promoted healthy behaviors,
and brought UF IFAs extension learning through public spaces
for youth and adult audiences.
[Applause]
and we're going to be honoring UF IFAs a little bit more
with two more awards.
The Florida Native Landscaping Education.
The UF IFAs extension Florida Native Landscaping education
and water Conservation Initiative
promotes native plant use and water conservation
through education, demonstrations,
and hands on resources.
Reaching more than 350 participants,
the program has helped residents convert landscapes
to native plants and has conserved roughly 9 million
gallons of water every year.
[Applause]
and last but not least, for our family services,
the peanut butter challenge.
Another UF IFAs extension program
is the peanut butter Challenge.
It's a volunteer food drive.
County departments community partners and Four-h youth
come together to support local food pantries.
The program has grown from 800 pounds, collected in 2020,
2,200 pounds in 2025.
For 17 local food pantries.
Thank you, everyone.
We're moving on to our awesome peds department.
Planning environmental and Development services.
We are talking about the peds Strategic Management Plan.
Our peds department launched first strategic Management
plan to unify operations and improve service
across seven divisions.
The plan has cut development review times in half.
Supported more than 10 billion in projects.
And strengthened efficiency, transparency,
and public engagement congratulations.
[Applause]
thank you.
But that's not all.
Let's talk about peds web.
A virtual professional development initiative offering
staff led training leadership sessions,
and collaborative opportunities.
Since February 2025 the program has hosted 16 sessions,
with more than 1900 employee engagements.
Strengthening learning combat leadership development,
and workforce connection.
Congratulations.
[Applause]
Now it's time for our environmental awards.
Orange County pollution prevention,
turning awareness into action.
Orange County marked the 40th anniversary of the National
Pollution Prevention Roundtable with events promoting waste
reduction, reuse, and environmental stewardship.
The initiative engaged more than 250 participants and diverted
over 1,700 pounds of waste from landfills.
Through a pair of events, cleanups, and community
education programs.
Excellent job.
[Applause]
another environmental award is Orange County's Green Place
program, which uses a data driven approach
to protect environmentally sensitive lands.
Preserving land nearly 27 acres.
Including 20,000 acres within the Florida Wildlife Corridor.
Through strategic purchases and partnerships,
the Green Place program serves as a model
for large scale conservation.
And we're so happy that you're all being recognized today.
Thank you.
Let's crowd in their.
[Applause] Good job everyone.
Next up is Orange County recovers.
Hurricane Ian housing recovery program.
Orange County recovers was launched in March of 2025
to help low to moderate homeowners repair,
reconstruct, or Replace homes damaged by Hurricane Ian.
The initiative has received more than 435 applications
and is helping residents return to safe housing
while strengthening community resilience.
Kudos to you all.
[Applause]
all right next up is our awesome Public Works.
Yes.
And the first award is for the Kerkin Road Extension project.
Orange County partnered with universal
to deliver the 315 million Kirkman Road extension.
With a 1.7 mile multimodal corridor.
Improving mobility and reducing congestion and supporting
regional growth the project creates a vital connection
to major tourism and employment while advancing the county's
I-drive 2040 vision Plan.
[Applause]
next up is Orange County sidewalk gaps assessment.
Orange County transformed sidewalk planning and delivery
through a data driven system that identifies, evaluates,
and prioritizes improvements prepared
by using a GIS database, objective scoring, and project
bundling, the county is delivering
a safer, more accessible, and more equitable
pedestrian infrastructure.
Let's hear it for the Orange County Sidewalk Gaps Assessment
Program.
Yes.
[Applause]
Thank you all.
[Applause] Next up is AltaVista mitigation project.
Orange County is 24.3 million AltaVista flood mitigation
project transformed one of the county's most flood prone
neighborhoods.
By expanding stormwater capacity and adding
critical infrastructure.
The system proved its value during Hurricane Milton in 2024.
Providing -- preventing street and residential flooding after
nearly ten inches of rain fell in the area.
Well done, everyone.
[Applause]
On to human resources, with three awards.
With ozone mind matters campaign.
Orange county's Ozone Mind Matters initiative
supports employee mental health through awareness training
and access to resources.
The 2025 campaign saw a 212% rise in on site counseling use
and completion of mental health first aid training by 1300
managers peer ozone mind Matters team also won, you'll see,
a national award, from the National
Association of Government Communicators Blue Pencil
and Gold Screen Awards.
First place for internal communications campaign.
Weldon.
Next is HR recruiting online hiring.
This initiative streamline Orange County's hiring approval
process by replacing fragmented emails
and manual tracking with centralized web based forms
and shared recruitment trackers pick the solution reduce
duplicate work, improved accuracy,
and saved an average of five minutes per hiring request.
Well done everyone.
Excellent job.
[Applause]
thank you everyone.
This next award is near and dear to every Orange County employee.
Take your child to work day.
[Laughter]
[Applause]
orange county's 2025 take your Child
to Work day transform into a county wide initiative that
strengthened employee engagement and children to the impact
of public service.
The event engaged 570 participants
across 14 departments.
The HR team was also honored with a National award.
The press a Anvil Award of Excellence for
Take Your Child to Work day.
In other words this program was recognized nationally
for its excellent work.
Thank you, everyone.
Next up, Arts and culture.
Canvas, a cultural plan for the City of Orlando and Orange
County.
This is a ten year roadmap to strengthen and celebrate
the region's arts and culture.
Adopted in September of 2025, the plan
is being implemented with guidance from Canvas Cultural
Plan Committee.
[Applause]
and with the second award, it's going
to be Orange County's annual act award.
Celebrating arts and cultural tourism.
This honor recognizes art and cultural tourism organizations
that receive Orange County's cultural tourism grants.
Funded by the.
The Tourist Development tax.
The program awarded more than $5 million
to 39 organizations in fiscal year 2025.
Thank you all.
[Applause]
We are good?
Okay.
For the next two is our -- great to see you guys!.
Information services division.
I s.
So they'll stay up there and I'll read both the words.
The first one is called AI threat Hunter.
Orange County developed and AI enabled cybersecurity solution
that analyze security data in real time
to identify potential threats.
The system improve threat detection saves an estimated 750
staff hours a month and delivers $19,000 a month in savings.
[Applause]
the next program is Nexus One.
Orange County's web application that
centralizes staff information for multiple internal systems.
Thank you all.
To Orange County Fire Rescue Department.
All right.
[Applause]
oh CFRD.
Has a beautiful training center, if you're not aware of it.
It strengthens public safety through workforce development,
firefighter training, and career opportunities for the community.
The training center is a $53 million
state of the art facility.
It enhances regional preparedness,
with advanced training spaces and supports
a highly skilled and resilient workforce.
Well done.
[Applause]
That's it for Orange County Fire Rescue pick just one award.
But we love you guys every day. (laughs)
Next is utilities.
A new day.
County wide curbside collection transition.
Orange County utilities successfully
transitioned to a new curbside come a solid waste and recycling
collection contract, through its outreach campaign,
called a new Day.
It ensured uninterrupted service for more than 230
5000 households across a 1000 square mile service area.
The 18 month effort improved road efficiency strengthened
recycling performance, and launched smoothly on December
29th of last year with minimal disruptions.
You know what it's like when you get a new solid waste schedule.
These guys are the pros.
We had very few complaints.
Congratulations to all of you.
[Applause]
Risk management is up next followed by procurement.
Orange County single parent captive insurer.
So for risk management Orange County
established its own single parent captive insurer carrier
to provide an alternative risk transfer solution
and help manage rising commercial insurance costs.
In its first ten months this program
generated approximately $6 million in savings.
Excellent job.
[Applause] Thank you thank you, risk management.
Next up is procurement.
They're always award winners.
AI enabled procurement governance.
Orange County implemented an AI enabled procurement governance
framework to improve efficiency consistency and risk management.
Using AI assisted tools with human oversight.
The program reduces, reworks, strengthens document quality,
and streamlines procurement and project review processes.
They were recognized by this with the Naco Award.
[Applause]
the next two awards is for our team.
I'm going to read both of them and our team will go up.
The communications team.
We received an award for the mayor's toy drive
because it's in its 15th year and we've distributed 90,000
toys to children and families in need.
The other is called Truth and Transparency.
We got a national award for this.
July of 2025, Orange County government
was accused by state officials of fraud and misspending tax
dollars.
Creating significant reputational risk
the county's communication team responded with transparency,
facts, and data appeared to reinforce the public's trust
and commitment to responsible stewardship and taxpayer
dollars.
The response by the comms team also
earned a national PRSA Anvil Award of Excellence as well.
[Applause]
And now I want to call your attention to our final award.
We saved a national award for last.
It is called vision Zero, orange County.
County wide commitment to eliminating traffic fatalities.
This award highlights how Orange County
is transforming its transportation
safety through its Vision Zero initiative.
A data driven effort to eliminate traffic fatalities
and serious injuries by 2040.
By embedding safety into every transportation project
and using data Cumberland County has
shifted from reacting to crashes, to preventing them.
This proactive approach has already
produced impressive results.
I want to hear the results.
A 28% reduction in traffic fatalities
between 2022 and 2024.
The manager of our Traffic Engineer division,
Humberto Castelo, accepted the national Award in New Orleans
last month.
I want to say one thing again about this award.
This proactive approach for Vision Zero
has included a 20% reduction in traffic fatalities
between 2022 and 2024.
Remember, we were number one.
We are now down to like number 25.
And it's because of these people.
So, thank you all.
[Applause]
Thank you everyone.
Congratulations.
Fantastic results.
Congratulations to all our award recipients.
These words are a testament to Orange County's creativity,
dedication, and teamwork.
Of our employees who serve our residents every day.
It was an honor to present these awards.
Thank you.
And now on to the County Commission meeting.
Thank you, everyone.
[Background Conversation]
[Laughter]
>> Good morning everybody before we begin,
mayor Demings is not joining us today,
but he's doing very well he's recovering.
We send him prayers and extra get well wishes.
I am Kelly Sommer.
I'm serving as vice mayor today.
Welcome.
I do see we're going to move into public comment
and I do see we have some public officials here.
I would like to offer them to come to the podium first.
I see Doctor Anna V Eskamani, state representative.
Welcome.
>> We do need you to read the statement.
>> Oh come on I do need to read the statement.
One moment, doctor.
I would like to invite comments from members
of the public regarding topics of interest or concern.
That are within this board's authority.
However, there are certain matters
which are not appropriate for public discussion
during this public comment period.
These matters include pending procurement or land use issues
or concerns that should be properly brought
to another board, rather than this board.
Also, we will of course solicit public input
during each public hearing scheduled for this afternoon.
Speakers are limited to two minutes.
And now I welcome Doctor Eskamani.
Nick, how many speakers are there?
20?
>> Thank you so much Vice Mayor.
Entire Board of commission and staff.
It was such a joy to see everyone get their flowers
this morning.
Congratulations to all the employees
who worked so hard to deliver on the promise of serving
our community.
I also wanted to add come and give a shout out,
I'm sure Mayor Demings is watching.
Just in addition, we just shared vice Mayor, my love
and support and healing energy for a quick recovery
back to the Dias.
My name is Representative Doctor Navia Eskamani
and I'm so excited to be here for two main reasons
I never had the chance to come before the County Commission.
Thank you again for this opportunity.
Congratulations on what I hope to be
the passage of a very important decision
today on the mobile temporary Overnight Shelter ordinance.
We've seen the connect for seven program
be very successful in the city of Orlando
and I have volunteered with organizations
like Samaritan Resource Center and others over the years.
I grew up in East Orange County.
I grew up at the intersection of Lake Pickett and Colonial.
I know the need to serve our unhoused community
goes far beyond the city limits.
I'm grateful for your tedious work on this.
For your rigor on it.
And for what I hope to be a passage later today.
With that said, the other issue that
brings me here and up until a year ago, I wouldn't think I
would be here.
But it's about sloths.
Of course the effort to prevent another sloth world tragedy.
And what I have found to be so impactful in the last eight
years of my time before the legislature,
is animal welfare knows no party.
People of all political backgrounds
care about the health and well-being of animals
in the state of Florida.
Whether it's a debate over bear hunts
and their prevention of expanding or renewing
those, whether it's the health of Lake Eola swans,
or today the conservation of sloths.
We don't have to relive the controversy and tragedy today.
I know, Commissioner Wilson, you have a presentation.
It's important to remember where the number one tourism
destination in the world and what happened at world
has created a huge stain on that record.
We have been leading the charge alongside members of this county
Commission of accountability, seeking criminal charges
for the actors involved, but also seeking statewide reform
and we are in conversation with the Florida Wildlife Commission
to prevent another tragedy like this from happening.
These were wild caught sloths, stolen from their environment,
brought to Orlando for human entertainment.
This was never an accredited facility.
It was never a facility designed to educate or provide
a good, secure environment.
It was purely designed to make profit
off the sweet, sweet, vulnerable sloths.
Which I know the commissioner will do an excellent job
in providing all the context.
I really want to take a moment this morning
to express my support for this effort.
Things can move slowly at the state level.
The next meeting, will be able to get a public hearing
on rule changes.
It won't be until December.
I just want to again express my gratitude and my support
and I appreciate everyone's work every single day.
And I hope to see you soon.
Thank you so much.
>> Thank you, doctor Eskamani.
I did see also doctor Jim Moyers.
Is he still here?
From Soil and water.
Come on up, sir.
And then Nick, following doctor Moyer.
We don't have any other elected officials, correct?
Can you call the first three names,
they can shuffle in behind doctor Moyer.
[reading names]
>> Good morning, vice mayor, commissioners my name is doctor
Jim Moyer.
I'm elected orange swan water conservation district
supervisor, serving Northwest orange.
And as always this is my presentation.
And mine alone.
First of all, my prayers go out to the mayor.
He's in my prayers every day.
I'm certain it all will go well.
I'm here this morning -- secondly,
I'd like to thank you for bringing Pastor Smith here
today.
Because when I had a fundraiser for Archville and Water
last year, I didn't know how it would go.
And former Apakah Commissioner Pastor Smith
was the first one to generously donate to the fundraiser.
The timing was outstanding.
I'm here today to thank the mayor, administrator Brooks,
and family Services.
Eddie in Family Services has done an outstanding job reaching
out to work with me to try to get an initiative to work
with the public one on one.
In Northwest Orange in the unincorporated areas.
It looks like we're making great progress.
We're going to have the opportunity
to work with the public one on one, to come in for office hours
and we can go over the three things I've
been promoting for a while.
One, change your habits peer to, conserve water use.
And three clean water bottles.
Again, thank you for your time.
Great job, vice mayor, in the mayor's absence.
And God bless you all.
>> The next speaker may approach the podium.
>> Good morning.
I'm Janet Osborne.
First I would like to thank Commissioner Nicole
Wilson for bringing to light and imposing a ban on importation
of exotic wildlife for entertainment purposes.
I would also like to thank the hardworking and very skilled
people at the Central Florida Zoo
for saving eight of the tragically injured and very sick
sloths.
We are living through a defining moment for wildlife.
Future generations we'll ask who spoke up.
I would like to add my name to that list.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission
is responsible for the humane treatment
of wild and captive wildlife in this state.
But did you know that the agency is
run by seven commissioners who are developers and trophy
hunters and who are appointed and have been
installed by governor Desantis.
Unfortunately, the FWC has a disturbing history
of failing wildlife and habitats they depend on.
They failed the gopher tortoise by allowing entombment policies.
That simply means being buried alive and bulldozed over.
Or at best by moving them to inadequate small parcels.
Their numbers have declined by 80%.
They failed the Florida Panther by allowing real estate
and infrastructure developments and cutting off corridors
in the Panther breeding territories.
Also failed the manatees by ignoring toxic water
pollution in the Indian River lagoon.
Resulting in the die off of seagrass and record deaths
of manatees due to starvation.
And of course, they failed the iconic Florida black bear
by using outdated population data and sponsoring a hunt .
I'm running rapidly out of time.
But if I can just get this across.
>> I'm sorry.
You are out of time.
But I do think we understand your sentiments.
The terms of what you're expressing.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Next speaker.
And again if you can begin with your name
and address for the record.
>> It's Elizabeth Osborne.
Windermere Florida.
Again I would like to thank Commissioner Wilson and Central
Florida Zoo for making this matter as public.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission mission
is to manage fish and wildlife resources for their long term
well-being and the benefit of the people.
Did you know that sloths can starve
to death on a full stomach?
They are completely reliant on environmental conditions.
If they get too cold, the special microbes
they have in their digestive systems
die and therefore they can no longer digest the food they eat.
Over 60 wild sloths died due to cold, exposure, disease,
and poor conditions, as they were housed in the vehicle
storage warehouse.
The FWC was made aware of sloth world in December of 2024.
By the time of the FWC s first inspection in August, 2025, 21
sloths had died.
FWC issued a verbal Warning.
This is clear and some would say a criminal failure of the FWC
to follow its mission.
Report these findings to Orange County.
And take immediate action to protect
the well-being of the remaining sloths
appear clearly the FWC has neither the expertise
nor the desire to manage exotic wildlife or prosecute
businesses that neglect and cause harm to animals.
Finally, until the FWC is reformed
and biologists, zoologists, environmentalists,
and veterinarians replace the businessmen, hunters,
and developers that make up the current commission,
we will continue to have a lack of humane oversight.
The loopholes need to be closed.
I am supporting the county wide ban on the importation
of exotic wildlife.
I would also indiscernible.
And who knows, maybe the next deportation
will be another COVID 192.0 to us.
>> Alright folks.
Next batch of speakers is going to start with Brad Papas.
Followed by Peter Murray.
Natalie Lopez.
Nelson Betancourt.
Hope Bellamy.
Ryan Myers.
Mr. Murray, your first up.
I want to welcome my new commissioner.
I want to extend my best wishes to Mayor Demings.
I hope it gets better soon.
That said, I'm here not to talk about pleasant awards.
I want to talk and congratulate the award winners,
but for the past two and a half years
my family has gone through quite an ordeal and when
I saw the Florida Doge come out and talk about
the excessive spending here in Orange County,
and congratulations to Mr. Williamson and his team.
I was really upset because what he said about that,
I had directly witnessed as a consultant
to the mayor's office.
Comptroller Diamond investigated one of my allegations
and it was in the press.
It was 101,000 overbilling on a project that was $1,900 an hour.
Mr. Brooks issued a very detailed memo
stating how thorough that investigation was
and how he was going to sue to recover funds.
Months later the county legal contradicted the findings
of Mr. Diamond and said it wasn't in the county's best
interest to recover the funds.
Even though the contracts come with the, and the proposals
all support control of Diamond's findings.
Went to the wife of Democratic politician and sister
in law of a current state Senator.
Also provided evidence of two procurements
that were also suspect.
One member of the mayor's staff was found guilty of misconduct.
And they said I was lobbying, which again, I'd
love to address, but nobody will meet with me to discuss
these issues.
One of them they wouldn't investigate,
but during the previous investigation,
Milan told them they did not want Fpla to get an award.
Two years later, two years later after this evidence,
the comptroller investigated and he confirmed what I had alleged.
This was a federally non-compliant transaction.
A member of the mayor staff appeared
to be playing favorites again.
Second was this gross negligence or a cover up?
They refused to meet with me.
I have more evidence.
>> Thank you Mr. Murray.
Thank you.
>> Good luck.
>> All right come on folks.
Reminder of the names already called.
Jim dewberry.
Brad Papas.
Natalie Lopez.
Nelson Betancourt.
Hope Bellamy.
And Ryan Myers.
Barring any of those, our next speaker
will be Zach Moldoff, followed by Amara Smith.
Sana Afeez.
David Siegel.
And Tim McKinney.
Starting to worry I have the right list.
>> Good morning everyone.
My name is Amara.
32801.
As the mayoral election draws to a close
and while we contemplate budget cuts and spending
we must focus on who matters most, our residents.
Many community members cannot be in this room today because they
lack the time and resources to navigate the civic process.
Yet they are deeply worried.
Every vulnerable community in Orlando
faces a compounding crisis.
Skyrocketing property taxes.
State approved gentrification.
Environmental degradation.
And a looming affordability breaking point.
As we look to the future, I urge every resident to rigorously vet
the candidates.
If you find as many voters had a pattern of empty promises paired
with heavy corporate funding, do not let that breed apathy.
Stay engaged and keep speaking up.
Government does not start or end with who
sits in the mayoral seat period government starts and stops
with the people.
Thank you.
>> Good morning my name is David Siegel.
1866 Corner View Lane.
I'm a little confused because there were so many names
read before.
At any rate.
I wanted to come and just quickly address two issues.
The first one, I talked to you all about the pet poisoning
person we have.
He started engaging in harassing other people in the neighborhood
and the state of Florida told me that they
double dashed through legislation, people that
engage in this type of stuff, if they try to retaliate,
those reporting them, it's actually considered stalking.
At any rate, our pet poisoner, we've
been finding a lot of the wildlife poisoned.
I've called the county to come and collect the bodies and they
didn't.
I had to get up early one morning,
it's 530, and raccoons on my sidewalk.
Whatever.
Convulsing.
The perpetrator zoomed by me about 80 miles an hour
getting his message to me.
The second thing, I'm not going to go into a lot of details.
I'll be seeking meetings with some of you commissioners
or probably all of you.
And what I'm about to say has nothing
to do with anybody who is sitting at the dais.
But, a few years ago I chaired.
I was president of a not for profit.
And I was drawn into an elections tampering mechanism.
I would have completely forgotten about it,
but somehow it's raised its ugly head again.
At any rate, I know Commissioner Wilson,
you're an expert in not for profit law and proper business
conduct.
This is a doozy.
I have all the information here but I don't have enough time
to present it and it's probably better dealing with you
all individually on it.
At any rate, thank you for your time.
Best wishes to the mayor's recovery.
I noticed there was an absent space there.
I must have been out of the loop for a while.
Thank you for considering my points.
>> Thank you.
Byron, this is the second time we've
heard from Mr. Siegel regarding pet poisoning and our animal
poisoning.
What do we do in these instances?
>> Last time it was the Sheriff's office.
Some of the items that's not our area.
Again, if I'm correct, I believe there was a referral
to the Sheriff's office.
>> Okay.
Mr. Siegel, because you live right down --
you live in district five.
Ethan is right there and we'll try
to help you connect to who you need to speak with.
Thank you.
Ethan is right there.
He'll help connect and Victoria.
Thank you.
>> Sana Hafiz.
32801.
Hello.
Recently we saw the Orange County Fire Rescue chief Anthony
Resigned from his position after questions
from Representative Uribe about where
fleet purchases were accounted for within the department's
budget.
We also saw that Orlando approved -- or I'm sorry,
the county approved a contract with Kratos, a defense company,
with a base on allocates or Jerusalem with a base
[indiscernible]
What assurances do we have that these audits will be carried out
and what assurances do we have that those responsible for money
laundering will be held accountable.
I couldn't help but notice that the responses to the gentleman
that spoke a few speakers ago weren't as warm or receptive
as those that were when people talk
about sloths or other things that seem to be more unifying.
I think that making sure our funds that
come from our taxpayer dollars are being appropriately spent,
knowing the economic situation our residents are in,
is a nonpartisan issue as well.
I'm quite concerned, honestly.
This is a pattern I've seen across several meetings.
I'm not sure if you guys recognize me or not.
But I recognize you all.
I've been coming around and I haven't
seen aides go to the other individuals that
talk about corruption.
I haven't seen even responses to individuals
that talk about corruption.
I haven't seen any interest in the resources
that they present about that proof and not just the gentleman
that I spoke of before.
But several people from several years.
I would really appreciate if you all in your current positions
and those that you aspire to be in
could clarify what you'll do to make those changes
and what ramifications that would have for our constituents.
Thank you very much.
>> My name is Tim McKinney.
I live at 415 East Pine Street.
Orlando Florida.
32801.
This is Haley Dubois.
She's dead.
She was homeless in East Orange County.
She was an identical twin.
She was 23.
She had a baby girl named Harley.
She was found on Saturday in the woods
by our outreach team, which is right here in the front row.
One of them is here with us.
Christa, who actually found her.
The other one is Crystal.
Both of them were on the first day of work.
Crystal was already fostering Hailey's baby for the past year.
She was in a DCF case.
No doubt directed by God and where to go
and then spilling the stench and the smell of death
they discovered her body.
Too badly decomposed by -- and damaged and unrecognizable
to even know the cause of death at site.
Mayor, our new commissioner, soon to be sworn in, deputy,
you smelled that smell, and it's a smell
that you'll never forget.
It's horrifying.
It's horrific.
So many emotions.
I feel sadness, heartbroken, sorry.
But today, I'm pissed.
I knew Hailey and her identical twin sister Hannah.
Her best friend since birth.
They were among some of the first students at my school,
Orange County Academy.
She lived a life of trauma, abuse, and hardship.
I'm not sure what the medical examiner is going
to put as a cause of death.
I don't know what the Sheriff department's office
is going to determine.
If it's the Latin Kings, a drug dealer, a domestic relationship,
an overdose that killed her.
If she had a safe place to stay overnight,
she wouldn't be dead today.
We have solutions.
For two years I've been in meetings
with the county trying to get $1 million match for $3 million
we have committed for 22 affordable housing units.
The county and the state have paid $250,000 for trailers
to sit in a parking lot for a year,
that I wish today you would let me pull my pickup truck there
and pull them out of there because the county owns property
adjacent to Transformation Village that we could sit them
on today, with all of the wraparound services.
For Hailey's sake, Mr. Brooks, you take action.
Mr. Brooks can't get it done, vice mayor, mayor,
County commission, I demand that you take action.
People are dying every day.
Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mr. McKinney.
>> Our next speaker is going to be Christopher Stalder.
Followed by Lee Padua.
Dana Hutchinson.
Alan Levi.
Tracy Jackson.
And Samia Pratt.
>> Good morning.
I'm Christopher Stelzer.
5102, Saint Germain Avenue, Florida 32812.
I'm here with support Orlando shelters
to help our most vulnerable in our community.
Every day there are more and more
people suffering from the devastations of poverty
and not being able to keep up with the expense of things that
keep getting more expensive.
I just saw again this morning a lady
near the intersection of Conway and Anderson
she was there yesterday and she's suffering alone.
There's so many people like her and so many families
on the street suffering as well.
At least they have each other.
But there are a lot of people that are alone, two.
I had the opportunity to go to the Central Florida Behavioral
Hospital near SeaWorld last week.
I met a young gentleman that is a licensed clinical social
worker, that is interested in doing a group
home for the homeless.
I will forward an email that I received from him to you
and maybe you can help him.
With people having to make the hard choices of whether to make
their mortgage payment or to feed themselves
or their families and they get foreclosed on,
maybe something can be done to help these people in group
homes, in the communities where they
are, to be able to resuscitate them and rehabilitate them
back to being self-sustaining.
I appreciate all everyone is doing.
It's a huge problem and it's only getting worse.
Whatever we can do to help our neighbors
helps our whole community and will help us have a brighter
future together.
Thank you very much.
>> Hi, I'm Lee Padua and I'm here to talk about sloths.
Thank you Commissioner Wilson for bringing this situation
to light and also thank you representative
doctor Eskamani for informing of the presentation
by Commissioner Wilson.
I will respect your time.
I'm sure hers is more elegant.
All of the facts I had written down.
I won't yap on that.
I'll just say if we treat this as an isolated incident
then history will probably repeat itself.
Leadership is tested after tragedy.
I really think all of you --
I really thank all of you for serving Orange County
and the way that you do.
And I look forward to Orange County setting a higher
standard for animal welfare.
Thank you so much.
>> Good morning data Hutchinson.
19246 Lansdowne Orlando, 32833.
Sloth world Orlando tragedy is not just
a case of animal deaths.
It's a stark example of systemic neglect
from a regulatory failure, and the exploitation
of our vulnerable wildlife.
Florida state officials had knowledge come authority,
and opportunity to take action to protect the sloths
and yet they did nothing.
I was surprised at how inexpensive the sloths were.
Only 3 to $400 each.
And people were excited enough to see them
that they prepared for tickets to a venue that hadn't even
opened.
The incentive was there for someone to do this again.
The state's priority is making sure businesses in Florida
maximize their profits above all else.
I did a lot of research, I saw pictures
and read everything I could find regarding sloth world.
The fact that FWC refused to charge the owner with anything
is an absolute disgrace.
I think it is up to the county to prevent something like this
from happening again.
I want to be clear, this is not a knee jerk reaction
to an incident.
Even if this business had done everything
to properly care for those animals,
taking an animal from the wild to put
into an indoor fake rainforest is cruel.
Orange County does not need this kind of attraction.
Show that we believe in protecting the defenseless,
support a county prohibition on importing exotic animals
for entertainment.
Lastly, this afternoon, please do not approve of item C,
minimizing wetland impacts should always
be a priority and this does not do that.
It can and should be done better.
Thank you.
>> Good morning.
My name is Alan Levi.
535 East Harding Street, Orlando.
District three.
I am with support Orlando shelters.
People got to go to the bathroom.
Orange County has 20 public restrooms for 100 000 people.
But it's sundown, that number drops to zero.
300 people were arrested for public urination in 2024.
276 of those were unhoused.
274 were arrested again.
It costs $300 per rest.
It's not just the unhoused.
Everyone at some time in their life
has been in a public space and just absolutely needed to go
and maybe did not make the best decision.
And maybe they got arrested.
That's damage to your dignity and that's
damage that makes it harder to sign a lease or get a job.
This is what we're asking, for a shared partnership
to distribute 15 public restrooms in strategically
placed locations along the tourist corridor.
That are accessible to the unhoused community.
Also, let's just limit arrests when
there are no bathrooms nearby.
Lets it stop criminalizing a basic public need.
Thank you.
>> Hello.
Good morning my name is Samia Prat.
I'm a mom of four with children spread across three
of your Orange County schools.
Last year we were successful in moving the bus stop.
After I posted a picture on social media of a car hopping
the corner of our intersection and the children standing
there waiting for the bus.
We are still fighting.
It's been two years and we are still
fighting to try to get some sort of safety measures,
turn lane lighting on our streets.
I attended your transportation planning session
earlier this year and they identified that area
as a hotspot.
They talked about arts funding.
Then when I tried to follow up and I
have been, for the last two years
working to try to get someone to pay attention to this,
and I've had no success at all.
I know you have your Vision Zero initiative.
I just shook the hand of the gentleman who received the award
and asked how he was shaking my hand I know he was like oh God,
not you again.
I just keep showing up until someone will
pay attention and do something.
I go out of my house, Bhargava states,
and I still see the memorial of a new death
that we've had in the last two months.
That is not accounted for now on your initiative.
If someone could please pay attention.
We need a turn lane.
We need some lighting.
My address is 4818 gilded Jewel drive, Mount Dora.
I'm in unincorporated Orange County.
It's at the corner of Sadler Road in Orange Blossom Trail.
You're getting ready to build a brand
new park at that intersection.
However, I will not allow my children
to even cross the street to go get a piece of candy
from the store.
We don't have any pedestrian sidewalks in that area
where the children can safely cross.
We don't even have a turn lane to pull into our community.
When we had Jerry Hume come out to do the story on it,
he was almost rear ended getting into our community.
If someone could please help us, I would appreciate,
and I thank you for your time today.
>> Miss Pratt, if you could see Brett black door.
Thank you.
>> And thank you for showing up keep on keep on.
>> Good morning.
Elected officials and all of the citizens of Orlando.
My name is Tracy Jackson.
I come before you a citizen of Orlando.
I live at 2436 East Illiana Street.
I came here two years ago facing the same issue.
Eight years ago I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress
disorder after a life interrupting
event happened to me and I was given a section eight voucher.
I've been here about five years now.
I've moved from Miami, thinking there
was more safer or habitable housing here.
I have moved four times in five years.
Since I've been here in Orlando.
A lot of the properties that are on the section eight list,
I've been told by my worker to try to pick
a good unit from that pool.
But how can you pick a good unit from the pool
when the pool is full of doodoo.
This is my toilet.
Two years ago I moved into this property, after I came here.
And I had the same complaint about the slumlords
that are on the program.
It's a very difficult to get yourself back on pace
when you're moving from place to place.
It is very difficult for your children
to get a proper education when they're being
snatched from school to school.
I was sent upstairs to the housing agency there.
I have not heard anything back from them.
My question is, how can the tenant, the participant
of section eight, continue to have a platform
to make a complaint to the community section
eight department or any supervisor,
when they become a villain, because I'm
complaining about roaches.
This is my kitchen.
There are so many roaches in my kitchen,
I would have to charge them rent to evict them.
I have sewage coming up through my tubs.
My toilets.
And even my kitchen sink.
Three months after I moved into this new property.
My question is, I just need one person on this,
I just need one person to care.
Just one.
I'm just looking for a place to call home.
That's all.
That's it.
>> Miss Jackson.
See the young lady standing in the back?
That's Tanya Wilson.
She's director of the department that has housing.
So if you would please see her.
>> Thank you.
>> Vice mayor, I believe that was our last speaker.
>> Thank you, Nick.
Do we have anyone else who would like to make public comments?
No, okay, we will close the public comment
at this time period I'll call on county administrator, Byron,
to present the consent agenda.
>> Thank you, madam vice mayor.
I have just one item to pull off the consent agenda.
And that's item G five.
Regarding a standard permit for environmental protection.
That item will be considered concurrently
this afternoon along with public hearing eight one.
So item G five being pulled to be heard this afternoon.
Staff presents the remainder of the consent agenda for the board
consideration.
>> Thank you.
>> Motion for approval?
>> Second.
>> Commissioner Uribe, you agree with the motion?
All in favor, say aye.
Motion carries unanimously.
And we have Commissioner Mike Scott who's joining us now
but was absent on the vote.
I would like to highlight some items that
were approved in the consent agenda this morning.
That are exciting and worthwhile of celebrating.
Orange County is preparing for its fourth wave
of what has become the largest medical debt relief initiative
in Central Florida's history.
To date the county's debt relief efforts have eliminated over
$637 million from more than 427 000 Orange County residents.
Adding an additional $2 million for a revised
amount of 6.5 million.
The county anticipates alleviating
the financial hardships of more than 100
thousand additional residents.
The Citizens Commission for Children Division has added
an additional $112,500 in funding for existing reading
and mathematics coaching program provided through its partnership
with the nonprofit Impact Outreach Ministries of Central
Florida.
The additional investment is expected
to help mitigate and prevent learning
loss for more than three dozen additional youth.
With this increase, the revised three year contract totals
$562,500.
The additional funding supported by rollover funds
from the Children's Services Fund.
Which would be contractually obligated by the end of 2026.
With that, I will call on Karrie Mathis
the procurement division manager to present
the procurement committee recommendation regarding
selection of one firm and two ranked alternatives
to provide professional solid waste
system financial consulting services for Orange County
utilities request for proposals.
Y 26-137- KC.
>> Thank you good morning Vice Mayor and Commissioners.
This procurement committee had evaluated proposals
for professional solid waste system financial consulting
services for Orange County Utilities.
I'm requesting board selection of one firm and two
ranked alternates as well as the request of action on the screen.
Commissioner Semerad was assigned
to the Procurement committee.
>> Thank you?.
I move for the selection of Taylor's Financial Consultants
Inc..
With 359.88 points.
With Geo Syntax Consultants Inc. With 345 points and Nugent
strategies and Solutions LLC with 307.54 points, as well as
the ranked alternatives.
>> Second.
>> Thank you.
I think Commissioner Wilson, ladies first, got it.
All those in favor?
Those opposed?
Motion carries unanimously.
With that again I call on Carrie Mathis.
The management of the procurement division
to present an update on the procurement ordinance.
We have no action requested on this item.
But we are all ready.
>> I would like to also invite Heather Wallace from the County
Attorney's office to join me at the podium.
We will be tag teaming this.
Taking you through this work session with
regards to the update to the Procurement ordinance.
As part of the work session today
we're going to be providing you a bit
of the background on the ordinance, and overview
of the proposed changes.
We'll be digging into some of the specific subsections
of the ordinance that will be the focus of this update.
Prior to providing some detail on the accompanying
administrative regulation update and then discussing key policy
recommendations that we would like
to get feedback from the board.
As background, the procurement ordinance,
which is chapter 17, article three, was adopted back in 1992.
So 34 years since its original adoption.
It has not had a comprehensive review and update
since that time.
It has largely remained unchanged.
There have been several updates to particular portions
of the ordinance.
Such as the nondiscrimination provisions.
Some definitions, source selection, and protest.
This procurement ordinance update
is intended to enhance consistency, clarify,
modernize some procurement practices to really
reflect what our current practices and standards are
and to improve the operational efficiency while still
maintaining the high level of transparency,
competitiveness, and accountability.
We are requesting board input on proposed updates.
Which will advance as a public hearing in the fall.
To provide an overview, the procurement ordinance as a whole
covers 43 general subsections.
Focus on delegation of authority,
exemptions, definitions, conflict of interest,
source selection methods, protest process,
causes for suspension and debarment, as well as
inspection and testing this particular update.
The proposed revisions you'll find
are largely administrative in nature.
They're intended to align the procurement ordinance
with our current procurement practices.
Again, over the course of three decades,
we have evolved in terms of our processes.
We want to make sure that we're creating consistency
throughout the ordinance.
Supporting all competitive procurement methods
that now exist.
And incorporate the use of electronic procurement tools
and processes.
Since we are no longer paper based.
In the decades since the procurement ordinance was
adopted, technological advances have
come online and really transformed
the procurement process.
We leverage automation.
We reduce administrative costs to the community as well as
the county and utilizing these electronic systems.
Procurement methods for solicitation
have also evolved from the standard invitation for bid.
Which are competitive sealed bids.
And request for proposals.
Which includes some of those qualitative factors
to really identify overall best value.
Today's work session, we're going
to introduce a couple of additional tools
we would like to put in that toolbox for procurement methods.
It should be noted that the procurement division routinely
seeks feedback from internal and external stakeholders
to support our continuous improvement efforts
and we'll be taking you through some of those stakeholder
engagements that helped inform the proposed
updates to the procurement ordinance
as we go through the work session.
Transitioning to the proposed changes to the ordinance,
we really seek to modernize the ordinance for alignment
to best practices.
Ensuring that we're consistent throughout.
We're proposing updates to six of the general subsections.
Those include general updates, definitions,
competitive exemptions, the types of solicitations,
the protest process, and causes for suspension.
Regarding general updates covered
the procurement ordinance currently
identifies the procurement division
as the contracts department.
We are proposing an update to the Procurement Division
for consistency to the county's organizational structure.
These are some of the administrative changes
to bring it up to date to what the county's current standards
are the procurement ordinance also identifies
the Head of Procurement Division as the Chief of Purchasing
and Contracts.
We are proposing to update all references
to the term Chief procurement official, which
will remove the need for any ordinance update
if the current title of the procurement manager
were ever to change.
The procurement ordinance includes numerous provisions
which reference the term bids and we're
proposing to update the terminology throughout.
Just refer to solicitation that will
encompass all types of competitive procurement methods
and not specifically focus on bids.
The procurement ordinance also reflects very manual processes
for the submission of bids and proposals.
It should be noted since we are six years removed
from being a paper based procurement operation,
we want to propose an update to reflect
the use of the electronic procurement system, which
is our sole platform utilized for all county
competitive solicitation processes.
That's some of the evolution over time
that we're now transitioning to leverage
some of the technologies.
Transitioning to definitions, we want
to ensure that we have concise verbiage
throughout the procurement ordinance.
We're proposing updates to remove unnecessary definitions
that have common meanings, such as business and contract.
We want to ensure terminology is consistent
and reflects current terms.
The proposed update will update the definition of construction
to a definition that is more consistent with the county's
current practice and replaces references to bitter,
again, with respondent where appropriate.
So that is a consistent terminology throughout,
regardless of the solicitation type.
Regarding competitive exemptions,
those are all codified under section 17-286.
They identified the following as exempt
from procurement requirements.
There is a series of them you'll see on the accompanying slides.
It starts with agreements to the board
and nonprofit and governmental entities for procurement
and transfer of sale and exchange of goods and services
with regards to this bullet point,
I would like the Commission to know that we are currently
undergoing a separate analysis that's
being performed with regard to nonprofit exemptions.
We will be advancing for further discussion in the future
and item specific to this particular analysis.
The second bullet you can see, there's
a myriad of competitive exemptions.
They include dues and memberships, advertisements,
engaging expert witnesses, title insurance for real property,
art and artistic services, etc..
It continues on with more competitive exemption elements
identified as real property.
Purchases from state and federal GSA term contracts.
If we are awarding contracts by any local state or national
government agency and we're utilizing those as piggybacks,
those are considered competitive exemptions period
this is the current listing of all the competitive exemptions
that exist in the procurement ordinance.
We're proposing updates to the competitive exemptions.
Including adding the competitive exemption for medical services
provided by physicians or other medical professionals.
This is primarily used by corrections and health services
to ensure the inmate population has the care
and treatment that they need.
While they're in our custody and care.
This exemption for medical services
by physicians and other medical professionals
is consistent with an exemption that is allowed by Florida State
Statute.
We are requesting an additional competitive exemption
for accreditations.
Typically there is only one accrediting body
and so it would be virtually impossible
for us to be able to gain competition amongst accrediting
bodies, since they're just competition
that typically exists.
We're looking to clarify the existing exemption for utilities
to include internet and phone services
and add language that might allow
for future expansion of those particular utilities exemptions
where competition doesn't exist.
With regards to types of solicitation, is --
that is the invitation for bid, which we know is our competitive
Seal bidding process, as well as request for proposals which
really seeks to achieve best value through qualitative
factors.
We're seeking to incorporate some additional procurement
methods to support agile and strategic procurement sourcing.
We'd like to add a process for the request
for information, which is an informal process that
allows the county to obtain information through market
analysis to help inform us when the county is unclear of how
to meet a specific need.
That helps us to gauge what the market has to bear,
fact finding, and helps us consider
how we might structure a formal solicitation in the future.
There's no award that's made in a request for information.
Is simply some market analysis.
We'd like to add a process for invitation to negotiate.
This method is very similar to a request for proposals, whereby
we would score in a short list the proposers
of the respondents.
This particular process would allow the county
to simultaneously negotiate to ultimately achieve the best
value amongst the shortlisted firms.
This is a method that has been undertaken
by the state of Florida.
Also, if we're looking at our neighboring community,
the city of Orlando has the past leveraged invitation
to negotiate as a procurement strategy.
We'd like to add a new provision to consider public private
partnership proposals or the P3's.
Florida Statute 255065 provides a general process
that allows for agencies to create their own more
detailed process.
Many of our neighboring local governments
have created their own process but Orange County to date
has not yet done so.
By virtue of this update we're seeking
to be able to incorporate that so we
have a more defined process.
We have received an unsolicited proposal
that is currently under evaluation
and so we're recommending that a process be created
to further delineate what that process will
be should we receive any future unsolicited proposals
in the future.
We are going to be providing an accompanying administrative
regulation to further define that process.
Which Heather will provide you some guidance on.
And I'm going to turn it over to Heather
to take us through the protest process portion of the work
session.
>> We have identified several inconsistencies in the protest
processes that are described in our current procurement
ordinance.
These inconsistencies have created confusion
to vendors in the past.
We have different time frames.
We have different methods by which people
are to challenge a procurement.
And it has resulted in sometimes people
not following the correct process
and sometimes losing out on their ability to protest.
We are going to be talking more as we
go through this about some suggestions
that we have to improve that process.
This update hopefully will improve the clarity, efficiency,
and consistency of the protest process.
But we want to maintain fairness and due process.
On average, the county issues 345 formal solicitations
annually.
With a protest rate of 4%.
This gives you an idea of the number of protests
that have been received by the county
over the last several years.
As well as the percentage of those protests that were denied
and the percentage of those protests
that were upheld as they went through the process.
We put together this benchmark analysis that gives you --
I understand it's really small, and I apologize.
Gets a lot of information.
We're going to talk about these things in more detail moving
forward.
But a few things I would like you to notice about this slide,
one is that Orange County is in the minority
and we have two different processes,
depend whether it's an invitation for a bid
or a request for proposal.
As you can see, almost all of these other entities
have one process.
Regardless of the type of solicitation.
Miami Dade is an exception to that.
They have a carve out for a design solicitation,
funded with federal funds.
I'm not sure why.
But other than that, everyone has one consistent process,
regardless of the type of solicitation.
I would like to point out that most
of these organizations, the first level
is a protest to the procurement director or procurement manager.
Whatever their title is for that particular position.
I wanted to point out that as far as an appeal process,
almost all of these other entities
have some type of formal hearing as part of their appeal process.
Either a formal hearing before the Board
of County commissioners come a formal hearing
before the hearing master, or a special master or an appeal
committee.
And currently in our process we do not have a hearing.
We have a process whereby the appellate will
contact each one of your offices and try
to set up a meeting with you and so again, we're
going to talk about this in more detail.
These are the things we noticed when
we were looking at the other local governments
that we normally compare ourselves to.
Carrie is going to talk a little bit about some stakeholder
engagement that was done as part of this process.
And
>> We didn't coordinate our back and forth here.
For stakeholder engagement, back in April of this year
we launched a survey because we wanted to gain
some feedback from respondents.
Any proposal who might have participated
in a formal solicitation that was proposed
tested that doesn't necessarily mean
they were the ones protesting but they were
a party to the procurement process for which a protest was
filed.
We took a look at our FY 25 data of all our solicitations
that were protested and we sent out a survey
to 125 vendors, all of which has the entirety
of the pool of vendors that had participated
in a formal solicitation process during which a protest was
filed.
We left the survey out and open for a period of ten business
days.
We received a total of 11 responses.
In addition to that we convened a focus group
the following month where we invited a subsection
of those 125 vendors.
Representing all of the different sections
so bidders and proposers who pursue goods and services.
Bidders and proposers who preserve
construction and professional service procurements.
We invited them to the table and we
got some feedback that helped inform the ordinance
updates that we're proposing as well as a separate procurement
action plan that's outside of the procurement ordinance update
that we're proposing and I will take you
through what each of those look like
as a result of that feedback.
With regards to the procurement update,
as a result of that feedback and engagement,
we're adding verbiage in to allow protesters the ability
to supplement their formal written protest after filing
a public record request is filled.
We heard from them it's a very short period of time
for which they have to protest and file their formal written.
And sometimes there's an accompanying public record
request that's in the process of being fulfilled.
They said it's not really fair if we get fulfillment
after the time frame.
We would like consideration that we submit a public record
request that we can utilize that and supplement that information.
We are writing that into allow for that
and give them that due process to understand
the record fulfillment and incorporate that in.
We are proposing to structure the protest process
as a single consistent process regardless
of the procurement type.
Something that Heather mentioned that you
would see in the benchmarking is we have a separate protest
process for Ifb's versus a separate protest
process for RFP s.
The feedback from the business community
was that we just want to have a single process.
We don't want to have to figure out
what's the process for and IFB versus an RFP.
To avoid confusion and understand
how to navigate it because that's the way
we are structuring the protest update.
In accordance with one process throughout.
As a result of their feedback, we are responding
-- as the ordinance currently reads,
if you participate in an invitation for bid and you
protest, you as the protester are responsible to provide
your protest to all of the other bidders.
If you protest in an RFP process,
the current ordinance says we will distribute the protest
to all the other proposers.
We just want to make it consistent.
The feedback we heard in the focus group
was we want procurement to be the central point of contact.
That's what you told us it is throughout the whole process.
We don't want to have to be communicating and providing
any sort of messaging or information
to the others that participated.
That should be your function.
We are incorporating that in and removing the requirement
and creating the sole responsibility for procurement
to distribute the protest regardless of solicitation type.
In terms of a procurement action plan that's
outside of this ordinance update, what
are some of the actions we took away from the focus group
and from the survey?
As we are currently coordinating with our E-procurement platform,
which is open, to create some additional status
flags in the system that will automatically
deploy a notification.
That will give them a more automated information
to understand the status of the procurement.
Rather than have to go mine our website
for every specific status.
They'll receive an automatic notification
through their email that will inform them
and then they can go look at our recommendation for award pair
currently we don't have that technology throttle on.
It's incumbent upon any bitter or proposal
to have to keep looking at our website
to see if a recommendation has been posted.
We're trying to leverage some of the technology that
exists to help provide some more automated communication
to the business community so they
can understand the status in a more efficient way.
Additionally we've completed updates to our Boilerplates
to incorporate the debrief provision into all invitation
for bid Boilerplates.
It had existed only in a request for proposals
and so we would offer debriefs to proposers
to understand how their scoring was derived but we really didn't
have the debrief provision included
in an invitation for bid period and sometimes bidders are deemed
non-responsive and they really want
to have a deeper dive into why.
We do post that in the recommendation for award.
A posting that's on the website.
But some of them endeavor to want to have more education.
To learn about those specific factors in an invitation
to bid that led them to not be considered for their.
So we've already updated our Boilerplates
to include that debrief provision
so they know they have the opportunity to come to us
and we'll meet with them and explain it in further detail
to help educate them so it doesn't
occur in that situation in the future.
Those updates are already either in the work or the second one
with the debriefing is already done.
We're developing a an educational curriculum
to the departments to provide comprehensive training
on technical evaluation components.
That's a critical part of assessing any bidder's
responsibility and we want to make sure
that we're doing our part to educate some of those staff that
are assigned to do these types of things we want to make
sure they're fully informed and educated on what
specific components they need to make sure they are sufficiently
addressing, to determine the responsibility of any bidder.
Turn it back to Heather.
>> As we already mentioned covered the Procurement
ordinance defines two different processes for invitation
for bids and requests for proposals for protest.
Under the invitation for bids, the current process
is, we do a protest review with the procurement manager who
makes a decision.
If the person is unhappy with that decision,
they then go to a protest hearing with a protest committee
and then if they're still unhappy it's
an appeal to the board.
Under the request for proposals, they have a protest hearing.
They go back to the procurement committee that scored
the solicitation to begin with.
And then an appeal to the board.
The protest hearing with the procurement committee,
just so you know, some issues we run into recently,
there are some parts of a request for proposals that are
not scored by the committee.
They are scored by the procurement department
based on standards within the procurement manual.
When someone protests that, they still
have to go back to the procurement committee
and that makes it difficult for the procurement committee
because they're trying to decide a protest about something
they didn't decide to begin with and have no control over.
So based on all of these issues, we're
recommending establishing one process for all solicitation
types to avoid the kind of conflicting processes
and confusion.
As we already mentioned, our benchmark analysis
only identified one other county that
has different processes based on the type of solicitation.
We're going to propose three different options for you
today to try to get some feedback as to what
you feel is the best option.
Option one would be maintain our current process
but add clarifications.
Do everything we can to try to avoid confusion.
For instance, like I mentioned, there's
different time periods based on the protest process.
We would make it all one time period.
Make the process consistent.
But still have the current process
that we already maintain.
Option two would be to replace the current process
with a decision by the procurement manager and then
an appeal hearing to the Board of County Commissioners.
Option three would be to replace the current process
with a decision by the procurement Manager and then
an appeal to a protest committee.
That protest committee would be comprised of three staff members
appointed by the county administrator
to serve in that capacity on an annual basis.
Again, option one would be administration --
would be to maintain the current process.
Which we've already identified has some issues.
We would do the best we could to create as many consistencies as
possible and try to avoid some of those problems
we've had in the past.
Option two would be to replace the current process
with the decision by the procurement manager
and an appeal hearing to the Board of County Commissioners.
This again would create a consistent process
for protest review and an appeal hearing
before the Board of County Commissioners
would ensure that the vendor has an opportunity
to present concerns to the Board of County Commissioners.
This would consist of an actual scheduled agenda item
where you would hear from both sides
as to what the substance of the process
is and then make a decision after the hearing.
And then again option three would be replace current process
with a decision by the procurement manager
and an appeal to this protest committee, which
would be made up of three individuals appointed
by the county administrator to serve on an annual basis.
This would provide a hearing process and also
a consistent process regardless of the type of solicitation.
Our recommendation is to -- is for option three.
Obviously it's up to you all which you would prefer
but that is what we are suggesting
as we feel like it could be the best option in terms of removing
these inconsistencies and also providing those who
are protesting with an ability to have a hearing in front
of individuals and present their case.
And we'll come back to that at the end of the presentation.
And then another item that we wanted to discuss with you today
is the possibility of a protest bond.
We are proposing implementing a protest bond that
recognizes the administrative resources that are required
to conduct a formal protest review
and encourages well-founded protest.
It's intended to support an efficient procurement process.
Not discourage legitimate vendor challenges.
It ensures that protests are filed
when there is a substantive basis for the challenge
while preserving their rights to due process.
Again we did some benchmark analyzes and you can see here,
most other organizations have some type of protest fund.
Some have -- for instance, Miami-Dade,
they have a filing fee and an admin fee per Seminole has 5%
or $5,000.
Whichever is less.
Some require a bond on appeal.
It varies based on the local government.
Most have some type of bond included
as part of the protest process.
And you can see, most of the time it is refundable.
If the protester prevails.
If the protester does not prevail,
sometimes it's refundable at less cost.
Again our staff recommendation is
to implement a protest bond requirement
equal to 1% of the annual value of the bid or proposal.
So the under design rewards would be an estimated budget
or a $5,000, whichever is less.
The bond would be fully refundable
if the protester prevails in their protest.
And again, this would be consistent with the bond
requirement for several other jurisdictions in the area.
This just gives you an idea of what
the bond would look like depending
on the value of solicitation.
If it was $250,000 solicitation, it would be $2,500 bond.
And then $1 million and up, it would be a $5,000 bond that
would have to be posted.
And now Kerry is going to talk a little bit about causes
for suspension and we will come back
to the protest process at the end.
>> Section 17-314 of the ordinance addresses causes
for suspension and debarment and identifies nine scenarios
for which a vendor may be suspended.
These have been in place for many decades.
You can see five of them on the screen here.
When it comes to defaulting or failure
to comply with the contract, if they
commit fraud or misrepresentation,
if they're charged with a court with a criminal offense,
charged in court for embezzlement, theft, forgery,
etc.
Or if they have bankruptcy proceedings instituted
against it.
Continuing on if they commission an act or a mission to perform
any act which is grounds for departure --
if they're suspended by another governmental entity.
Many of our counterparts and even the state of Florida
does produce lists that are monitored for if they're
convicted offenders.
We have the ability to suspend reflectively.
Or if there's any other cause that the procurement manager
determines on a commercial basis to be
so serious and compelling that it materially versus,
impacts their ability to function as a contractor.
It is -- there is still due process if for some reason they
are suspended, they have the ability to appeal and go through
the due process, to be able to state their case as to why they
believe they should not have been suspended.
We're proposing some updates to the suspension division.
As you see on the screen, we'd like
to add the ability to suspend the principles of the business
entity, as well as the business entity itself that participated
in the activity causing the suspension period we'd
like to add in the ability to suspend for a violation of Cone
of Silence or the blackout period
because that currently does not exist
and yet it is a very serious offense
if someone is to violate our blackout process.
We want to add the ability to suspend for withdrawal
of a better proposal after opening
and this would only be if multiple occurrences were
to happen period such as there is a trend of constantly asking
for withdrawal after the bid opening occurs.
We'd like to add in the ability to suspend if the vendor fails
to comply with the county's small business enterprise
participation or requirements of an awarded contract.
Previous one, the mwb process, when that program was in place,
there was a suspension ability to basically mirror this
and we sunsetted it when the mwb was suspended.
We'd like to bring it back in the form of an ability
to suspend if they don't comply.
And we'd like to allow for the length of the suspension
to be effective for a period of up to five years currently
the code limits up to two years of suspension.
Heather's going to take us through the administrator
regulations that will accompany the procurement ordinance
updates.
And
>> As a companion to the procurement ordinance update,
we would like to add some language in the ordinance
to incorporate public private partnerships,
as Carrie discussed earlier.
These are allowed by statute.
We have actually received one that we are currently
processing.
We would like to suggest and incorporation
into the ordinance but also a new administrative regulation
that would give us a much more specific process for how
we would process those unsolicited proposals.
This will provide a formal process that's accessible
to proposers prior to submittal to provide transparency
and consistency in processing.
Right now the one we're processing,
we are using the statute to process it.
The statute doesn't have a lot of detail in it.
We would like to have a process that gives us more, and gives
people who want to submit them more guidance
as to what we are expecting as part
of their unsolicited proposal.
It would be consistent with processes
that are adopted by other local governments in the area.
Would also provide for an application fee that
would help reimburse the county for extensive staff time spent
on the review of these proposals.
I can tell you with the one we are currently processing now,
a number of staff members have spent a significant amount
of time reviewing that, before we get to the point
where we feel like we can't bring it to you.
And then there is of course, if you all
decide to move forward with it, they'll
be negotiating a contract.
They will be monitoring the process as it moves forward.
We would like to have an application fee that
helps pay the county back, so to speak, for the amount of time
that we're spending on these.
We're also proposing some revisions
to the administrative regulation for the procurement Committee
membership.
We are updating it to the SBE instead of the MWBE.
We're also updating to reflect the fact that the scoring will
be consistent with ordinance solicitation and procurement
manual.
We're also proposing some revisions
to the administrative regulation for contract negotiation
because we're trying to update it to reflect how we actually
go about negotiating contracts.
As far as our key policy recommendations
that we'd like input on before we
bring the ordinance back to you, one
would be the protest process.
As we discussed, we're suggesting three options.
Option one, maintain the current process but add clarifications.
Option two, replace the current process with a decision
by the procurement manager and appeal hearing
to the Board of County Commissioners.
Or option three, replace the current process
with a decision by the Procurement Manager
and an appeal to a protest committee comprised
of three staff members, appointed
by the county administrator.
>> Thank you.
Does that conclude your presentation?
>> We've got one other recommendation.
>> I was going to ask, do you want to stop and let the board
weigh each one?
>> There's only one more.
We also wanted, we also mentioned a recommendation
for a board direction on a protest bond.
We would love some direction on whether you
would like us to bring that back as part of the ordinance update
or not.
And that's it.
Unless you have follow up questions.
>> Thank you.
We will go to the board for comments.
We have a couple commissioners who rang in.
Starting with Commissioner Uribe.
>> Good morning ladies.
Thank you for this update.
Just a really quick question, what is our current appeal
cost right now?
So if somebody appeals a decision.
>> There's no cost for anything right now.
>> Nothing right now?
We're pretty much one of the only major counties that
doesn't.
That's what I thought.
I had a couple notes here.
One, during procurement process over the last year,
there were state and federal law changes that caused that process
to change and I was one that advocated for rebidding
because I felt that if you were actually in that process or had
been awarded the contract, if those measures had kept,
at once -- but when that is a heavy weight part of the RFP,
it's swayed the entire process and ironically when you rebid
it, it actually went totally different.
My point is, I don't feel like that is addressed enough.
Those things are out of your control.
If the federal government or state government
says you no longer can do this, how do we proceed in the future
because, I felt they were correct.
But I felt the way you took it made sense
but it didn't really make sense because one company had never
really put the effort into that application
and so the company who never even went by the rules
that we existed would have been awarded the contract.
Can you give me some feedback on that?
>> I hope I answered your question right, Commissioner.
Please help me if I need to provide more context.
You're right, sometimes there are changes in legislation
that will help what we can evaluate
and what we can't evaluate.
What we've done in the procurement
Procedures manual is we've incorporated
a threshold of a firm must achieve
a minimum score of 60% of the total weighted score
in order to be deemed considered qualified.
That will help us in the event that a criteria
needs to become because it's no longer allowed
by law to consider.
We don't have to have a total weighting of 100 necessarily.
If you're familiar with the procurement process
and I know that you are because you've said on many of them
and participated, the total weighting is typically 100
and then we have a scale of one through five for the scoring.
Proposer could achieve potentially
a total of 500 points if they got fives
on all of the A criteria.
Our baseline has always been a score of 300
is the minimum to advance forward.
That's basically a three.
That's meeting minimum requirements.
360% of 500.
That's how we establish the baseline of 60%.
Even if that total weighting of 100
needs to be throttled down because something
is no longer able to be considered but we've established
that that total waiting time, the five eligible points,
you have to achieve 60% of that.
That gives us the ability to continue on.
I don't know if that answered your question Commissioner.
>> It doesn't because at the time that was a very significant
part of the procurement process we had in Orange County.
We really respected companies that actually took that
into place as opposed to a company
who disregarded it completely and never would
have qualified to get that bid.
I don't feel that's an easy fix because mathematically,
and you guys are math geniuses, you
would just say if I just remove this, remove that value,
everything should work out.
But then I think of the applicant part
when I know how important that is
and I make sure my company fulfills that
and maybe I wasn't as strong in other areas.
Now I didn't get to just apply according to your rules.
I don't see it as clean as that.
And I really can't offer you -- this is what you all do.
I can't offer you the exact way but I
don't think that we should be able to do that.
I don't think that's really fair because the applicant applied
with the rules that were set and the rules
got changed after they applied.
As much as that is very difficult for you
all, how do we deal with this, we would essentially
have to redo all of our work.
It would be nice to find a way to do that.
When you think of veterans, let's just say the veteran.
It doesn't carry as much weight.
My experience has been where companies have not had any
and then let's just say our next president
says I want to take care of veterans
and completely weighs it up.
You would actually exclude a lot of your applicants
right now who don't really invest
in that part of your application.
Hopefully we won't be dealing with anything extreme.
We have to be cognizant of that.
I think it's hard.
I will tell you, I worry on a couple of things and I just want
to --
I am falling in line with your recommendations.
I have been boisterous over the years on certain things
that I didn't feel were great.
When we talked about headquartered.
There was a case that you guys helped tweak it
where the applicant was not even based in Florida.
Went against it.
Was lobbying federal -- went against companies who were based
in Florida.
Won the bid.
I was really upset about that because I
said we are not helping a business that's
actually located centrally.
My concern comes on the value point.
And also I've also sat through your executive order sheet.
Where they're like hey come on our HR lady is this.
So give us points because we have a position here.
It is not you.
It is me.
Sometimes I question these applications
and I sat through them and I've read them
and I've questioned did you just happen
to stick someone in that department to qualify
and so forth.
I wonder when another issue is, when we've requested folks
at our headquarters, who just have office space here
but don't really have an office here.
When do we start validating those things.
Especially when they are repeat applicants.
Kind of tend to those companies that
go after government contracts.
They're kind of shaped that way.
When I talk to businesses, and I was a little disappointed
on the return of your 9%, because what we notice is
companies were -- we have found that over the years, their kids,
a student at UCF, and they use their kids dorm as an office,
or they rent a room at ABC construction,
so they can say we have an office here.
But they really don't.
So that means money they're taking
is going to another state.
And not staying here.
Have we ever gotten into really looking
into that a little deeper to really validate the tax dollars.
What's rolling out of their.
How many employees are actually here.
When I talk to a lot of folks who want to apply,
but, just don't feel it's a very -- it's really solidified.
And then I've had people come to me who are part of a contract
and didn't get the work.
And they just get to those, that division is like well,
good faith.
Well, good faith isn't rules.
I can tell you don't be bad and that doesn't
mean, what does bad mean?
You guys do such a great job at really scoping the best person.
I think the other half of this is actually
securing that those are done and fulfilled
because a lot of these people come back and rebid
on other projects.
I would love to see a little more teeth in how you do that.
And it worries me a little because I've
sat in these where we've got people from that division.
Because clearly you won't know what's
important to public works or solid waste.
I don't think that's the intended way of how
you look at applications.
But I've sat in those conversations where
I've pushed back, not all the time because I don't know,
but to say well, it works, so we're good with that
and I've also seen how you all have tried
to get references and have had challenges actually
even getting anyone to call you back and things like that.
Sure, if I gave someone a contract, what motivation
do I have that no longer contracted with me to help
them get additional work?
I hope one day we can actually look at what all this means
in that situation.
I am not for delaying.
I think it'll take too long.
I think that's probably why we end up
paying more than market rate.
Because if I put a bit in today, it
could be a year before I actually get the job.
So costs go up.
I think it's a backlash of how folks just know, hey,
bid high with the government because it's
going to take forever to get it and I've just
spent so much manpower applying for this.
But it really won't come through until 27.
I would love to find ways to help streamline that.
I am with you for option three.
I do think some people just like to protest because they can.
I do believe the bonding is that I would
like to see additional ways of finding when you do protest
that there has to be some legitimacy, just
besides I didn't like it.
I've seen that two.
I do worry when things have been rebooted within your system
and the numbers change.
I question two things, was there not openness and fairness
the first time?
Or was it not openness and fairness the second time?
I had an issue with the last RFP that came up here,
because how did that completely change?
It had nothing to do with the company.
It worries me on the process because it was the same players
changing of mind.
Except one person no longer worked for Orange County.
That is worrisome to me.
When you do that.
Carey, I mean I think your team really
tries to be as clear and transparent on this.
But I think outside of your job, making sure these things that
are fulfilled on how you got it, it
has to become part of the process
for people who are repeat applicants.
I'm with you on option three.
I do also believe that there should be a bond minimally.
But I do think that we take too long.
I would just love to wait, find a way that we can streamline,
maybe by putting the bond and maybe by doing things,
but I would love to have more weight on --
someone gets a five on veterans but it means so little.
And then the complying of repeat applicants who get other things.
Did they really hire all the small businesses?
Companies they would use locally.
Because I've heard too many small businesses
not get the work when they were part of an application.
And then they came forward to qualify on their own,
and then one last thing is I would
love to also see a prime be required
to put their own bonding up.
Not make the small sub put their own bonding when they actually
qualified for the RFP.
And this is something with Sheena.
Because they're capable of bonding.
If I'm capable of bonding $1 million,
but I hire a subcontractor and I make my subcontractor
use his own bonding on his share of the work, that
doesn't seem fair because that's what qualified
the guy in the first place.
Thank you.
>> Thank you Commissioner Uribe.
Commissioner Wilson.
>> Very briefly for me.
I think I want to be super complimentary to your team,
to this process, for people who don't understand
public procurement and the importance of it being public.
That is sometimes in and of itself
a delay because it is a public process.
It is something that we have a great deal of deliberation.
Anybody that wants to know how bad things can get when you
do go through that process come and go
check out the reflecting pool in DC.
It is critical that we include as many experts
when we go through these processes.
I think for the purpose of this update,
I want to say a lot of it feels very common sense to me
and I know sometimes it's a lived experience for you all.
Then to make them part of an update
is very and efficiency in and of itself.
Thank you for that.
I am supportive of option three, which aligns
with staff recommendations.
I am also in support of the implementation of a protest bond
and I want to -- those are my two things.
I am going to support both of those.
But I also wanted for public purpose
for you to explain a little bit or give
an example of what an invitation to negotiate is, in comparison.
Because I think it's a little bit of a different creature.
>> Thank you for asking.
It is a method that's out there and there's
certain agencies that utilize it because they
have the ability to.
The previous to coming to Orange County, we leveraged invitation
for negotiations several times.
I've had a little bit of experience doing those.
I know the city of Orlando has done them
and I've said in training that the state of Florida has given.
They've leveraged invitations to negotiate as well.
An invitation to negotiate is still a formal solicitation
process.
Like into an RFP process.
It's kind of labeled differently.
There's still criteria that one would have to go through.
They get scored like a shortlisting period
but what it gives us the ability to do
is let's say we shortlist to three firms,
we couldn't negotiate with all three of them at the same time
to try to arrive at the best negotiated
agreement with the county.
As opposed to only going to the top rank
from negotiating and then if we're not successful,
we have to terminate and go to the next.
It gives us the ability to simultaneously
negotiate amongst those three to try
to figure out how we can get the best negotiated agreement.
>> So really another efficiency.
Thank you so much.
>> Thank you, Commissioner Wilson.
Commissioner >> Thank you, Commissioner.
I have four questions.
I think they're easy.
I don't think they have been answered.
The first one is in the protest process.
For example, how will this affect small minority business?
>> The protest process is the same regardless of business
type.
They all follow the same process and our current ordinance,
regardless if they're a small business or minority
business or a large firm.
They have to follow the same process.
That would be no different if we updated.
Would apply to all the business community and not
just subsections of it.
They would all have to consistently follow
the same process.
>> Could this be a financial barrier?
Could they be penalized if they have the bond?
>> It could be I have seen some other local governments that
waive the bond for registered small businesses.
That could be an option if that's something
you wanted us to put in there.
>> Okay.
But will this penalize the vendor?
>> It will be a cost to them to bring forward a protest.
But if they prevail, they'll get it back.
It's only if they do not prevail in the protest
that we would hold on to it.
>> They will have to have it by the application time, right,
when they submit the application?
>> No, when they actually file a protest to the decision.
They wouldn't need to file it in a normal solicitation
period's only when they decide if they want
to bring a protest themselves of the decision,
then they would have to file the bond.
>> Keeping that line, do we have any data showing how many bids
protest Orange County or how many were
[indiscernible]
>> There's the data Commissioner from 2020 to on current to date.
So you can see the number of protests
received by fiscal year.
And ultimately the percent that were upheld by fiscal year.
And again on average we get about 4%
of our total solicitations that are
protested on an annual basis.
>> Thank you.
>> I had a question on this slide.
Just out of curiosity, when you look
at the numbers and the number of protests that were received,
in the years where there is a higher number received,
protest, is there some type of a market shock
that happens that creates a catalyst effect
or anything like that?
>> It's a good question, Commissioner.
But I can't tell you that off the top of my head.
Was it a time with extreme volatility where people
were kind of vying more for government contracts as opposed
to times when the market was more
stabilized so they had choices in the market,
I really can't tell you today and put my finger
on what caused the increase over certain years
versus other years.
It's possible it could be correlated to something
with regards to supply chain or volatility,
but I don't have that data to share with you.
>> Thank you.
I would like to say that I appreciate your department so
much because I think that the entire reason of procurement
process and making sure we have a good one
is to make sure that public money is used
to the benefit of public and not just to serve those who
are politically well connected.
Your process is very important to ensure fairness.
I also support option three with my colleagues as well.
And I wanted to just let you know
that I also appreciated how you included and educational front.
Where when somebody applies and doesn't get it,
that you actually spend time with the applicant
to educate them.
I know that your time is valuable.
And I know that's an additional task on your plate.
But I know it's super important as far as small businesses
to learn from you.
You guys are the experts.
I thank you for all that you do.
Byron, there was no requested action period
can I hear that there's a consensus.
Commissioner Scott, did you want to ring in?
No, go ahead.
>> We talk about those statuses.
Could you put a generic update, because obviously
just in the room of processes, there
could be a lot going on administratively.
And there's no update.
But a lot has passed.
Something that allows you to give a generic update
and say there is no update.
In regards to the options, so every year
the county administrator will pick a process, rate?
Have you figured out what you guys
are going to do when we add two additional commissioners?
Obviously right now it averages out
to about two procurements per commissioner per year.
Are you still tweaking that process or have you
landed on that?
>> Good question that's prescribed in the administrative
regulation of the composition of the procurement committee and it
does identify board delegates.
We do the quick math and we have six district commissioners.
Serve on a rotating basis, basically two months out
of the year.
It was easy math.
We have 12 months.
Six commissioners.
That's something we're going to be doing.
The staff assignment of those come January.
We working through that now.
What does it look like.
Is it an eight week rotation.
Is it something that we just go through, the districts,
so you won't necessarily have January and July.
You might have January and then several months later.
It's not exact math now.
But yes Commissioner, it is something
we are thinking about now as we're
going to be elevating to a district commissioners.
We want to make sure we have that staffing scheduled
for the procurement committee.
That will be forthcoming in January.
>> And are there any other counties or cities that have
a more public or process that involves members of the public?
Is there like a procurement advisory committee
or anything like that?
>> Not that I'm aware of.
I could do some outreach to pole peers.
I'm not aware of that.
There are occasions Commissioner,
where we do have members from either another agency
or technical advisors that serve on a procurement committee
to give that technical advisor.
But I'm not aware of any sort of member advisory committee that
would be associated with procurements.
As you know, these are public meetings.
The public can come.
We also broadcast them virtually as a courtesy
to help some people who don't want
to drive down to the office.
We have many people who are just observing the proceedings
virtually as well.
Whether their proposals or whether their citizens come
we don't really know.
But we do allow for those folks to come in and observe it.
They're not participating, but I am not
aware of any agency that has any sort of member
advisory committee associated with any given procurements.
>> Two more things, vice mayor.
With the -- I guess the boilerplate that you were
talking about.
In the language, when you talk about
like frequency of payments, the net 30, the prompt payment act,
and then you talk about insurance thresholds,
I know that there have been a number of barriers
and Commissioner Cordero kind of talked
about this, of smaller businesses who might otherwise
be eligible, but are financially priced out
because they can't afford some of the insurance thresholds.
And I know that not every company
needs every level of insurance.
We require a lot of insurance and generally it's standard.
But really looking at -- how do we put systems in place that are
easy to allow for the waving of insurance?
Because right now it seems challenging to just go
through the process.
But something that will allow you or John Pizzarelli
and his team to make some type of adjustment.
We need honesty insurance.
We don't -- that's another cost.
That cost is factored in.
Whereas if I didn't have that cost it'd be cheaper to you
as an entity.
>> Typically what I'll say Commissioner is we have
a collaborative workspace with risk.
We are managing a large system with them.
We're constantly collaborating on when we have scopes.
We start with the basic standard insurance requirements
that they require and then we kind of do bolt on
to and say this is a construction project
or they're going to need pollution liability.
We add on.
They are working out there in social services.
They need the child protection.
In addition to the standard.
We are always coordinating with risk
to understand what is the specific level of insurance
needed for this particular procurement.
It's not one size fits all.
We don't require them to provide their insurance with their bid
or proposal.
Only at the time of award.
We don't want people to have to come out of money just
to be able to bind that insurance coverage.
That's something I want to be clear,
we don't ever want anyone to have to commit funding,
just to submit a bid or proposal.
It's only for that awardee.
But we do declare what the insurance requirements
will be for that particular procurement in the solicitation.
As part of our education when we do
outreach as we encourage folks, take a look
at your current coverage.
Take a look at what the county is asking for.
Get with your carrier and see if they can do gap.
If you have a gap in that coverage and you're successful,
what is the value, what is the cost to cover that fact.
So that you're covered for that event.
We try to educate on that but we do
work very closely with risk on a case by case basis
to make sure we have the proper insurance coverages declared
upfront.
Not after the fact.
It's not really fair to go back to somebody and say now
you need to have these additional coverages.
That's not how we handle procurements.
>> My last thing is more of a comment.
You're aware we discussed this before.
As you obviously will talk about the makeup of who
these staffers are.
On a year to year basis.
I would ask that it never be a circumstance where there is
a supervisor and a subordinate.
>> Yes.
>> That was a concern.
Like okay, my boss is voting one way, I may feel a certain way
but I'm going to vote with my boss because he's my supervisor.
I don't -- I think that creates a situation.
If someone is going to go with their supervisor or manager
that they're going to go in there
that way and it's not a fair process.
That is a factor of consideration.
>> Thank you for bringing that up.
That is something that's been adjusted
for in the proposed admin rig that
will be advancing with this.
We didn't highlight it on there but we
have heard that feedback as well from the business community.
A perception out there that hey, maybe there's undue influence.
We have actually already written that
into the administrative regulation
to preclude a direct report from serving with their supervisor
on a procurement committee.
That's something that will be coming forward in the fall.
>> I know we talked about thresholds larger $9 million.
Commissioner eBay had you guys do some additional research.
But I remember when I left here on the 17th,
you couldn't spend more than $1,500 on an a B card.
And then when I got the UCF it was $10,000 on a B card.
I mean -- while you've got the book open,
look at all those things as well because that may be something
that may be we're having (indiscernible).
>> Those thresholds are specifically prescribed
in the ordinance.
They're in policy.
A couple of years back we did take
a look at updating the formal solicitation threshold.
It was very low at the time.
It was 3000 and the board was willing to increase it up
to 150 zero zero.
Respectively with that we did look at those lower tiers
of when do you need quotes.
What is a single quote.
We are fairly refreshed on that and what the board did authorize
during the time was an automatic escalator to the former
solicitation threshold so every five years we look at the value
that the CPI has increased and we can adjust up to the nearest
10,000.
Five years ago or six years ago the board
authorized that board approval or the formal solicitation
threshold to change.
This past October was our first year doing that five years CPI
increase and we found that the value of that CPI over the five
years had increased $40,000.
Automatically as a result, we've increased our formal
solicitation threshold up to $190,000 to account for that.
Every five years we'll do the calculation
to make sure that we are in line in keeping with the CPI.
And then we'll have to take a look at the single transactions
and the quotes to make sure that our scale is appropriately
adjusted as well.
But thank you for that feedback.
I appreciate it.
>> My apologies.
Thank you.
No requested action.
But it does sound as though --
I'm sorry, Commissioner Cordero, go ahead.
>> Thank you.
Carry on I have another question because you
know when Commissioner Scott was talking it came to my mind
as well.
If the protests go on the small business,
like they don't have enough capital or whatever,
but they want to protest, they have the 1% or the 5000,
that money will be returned if they get the >> Correct.
If they are successful in protest.
If they protest and it's found to be upheld,
they will receive the full amount of the bond back.
>> What does that mean?
I mean, okay, they prevail in the protest or whatever,
what would be the process for them to go in?
>> We will maintain their bond on file.
In the event they're successful, we simply
return the bond to them.
>> But okay, if they prevail in the protest,
what is the process before you, for them to come back
into the >> It would depend on what the basis of the protest
was.
If they are found to have been upheld,
we would continue on with the procurement process
and give them the consideration they had asked.
Yes.
I apologize.
That's right.
>> Okay and then, option three, of the protest process,
we get into the option three, which is the replacement
and decision by procurement management and appeal.
Three members assigned to.
What if that goes into there and let's say (indiscernible).
Would that come here or whatever decision
is made in that option three?
>> In the final scenario, no, the protest committee would be
the final decision maker, as far as the county is concerned
if they feel like they are aggrieved and want to challenge
it further, then they would take it to court.
>> Thank you.
Court, right coming up BK?
>> The protest would not come to you.
But the award of the solicitation
would come to you for a decision, yes.
>> C, yeah,
>> I'll say I'm okay with it going to a judge.
In terms of the evaluation of the rubrics scorecard.
But if you have an additional --
>> (indiscernible).
>> If I can, we get to serve on this,
but we don't get to serve on the appeal process.
None of us would actually have the ability to know this.
And we have overturned and we have had things rebooted.
I'm not saying it would happen all the time,
but it worries me that having this board that
was elected by the public not being able to be in this process
at all, at least while I've been here,
there's been a couple of times where it's come to us.
>> We want your feedback on this.
It would be a change, option 2 or 3
would be a change to what our current process is.
In order to be able to bring this back to you
for consideration, it really would be helpful,
I think we've heard some detail about your consideration
of the protest bond.
It's really up to this board how you
would like to see this protest process advance forward
for the due process.
If you have a desire to look at an option
other than what we're recommending,
this is helpful information for us
to know so that we can craft the ordinance in such a way
that the board wants.
>> Kerry my last question, I promise.
It goes to court.
Court decided that, they prevail, so what they do,
they come back, you stop the process with others
and then they come back and include that.
So what do you do? (indiscernible).
>> We've never had anybody go to court.
The way the process works now, they
would normally try to make an appointment with you all
to have a meeting to talk about their appeal.
This actually, if we do option three or we do option two,
it would allow them an opportunity
to present their case and allow the county to present our case
and have someone make a decision.
With the current process, they can make a meeting
with a commissioner.
You all don't have to take those meetings and sometimes don't.
This would give them a process whereby
they can air their grievances in front of someone
and it will give them time to have an actual hearing.
To present their case.
It's absolutely up to you all how
you would prefer to handle it.
We wanted to give you these different options that we've
seen in other localities.
To see if you would like to keep going the way
you are or change it.
>> My question though is not (indiscernible).
My question is, is the process, the whole entire process
would have to stop?
Until that is completed.
>> We do that now.
>> Everyone has that option now.
>> That's not new.
>> Yeah, that's not new.
They've always had that option.
If anyone is unhappy by the final decision made by either
the procurement -- in this case, ull.
They can go to court and challenge that if they want to.
It has not happened.
>> Yeah, but they go to two court after the BCC approved.
>> Yes.
And you would still have the solicitation
come to you for approval.
If it's over the formal threshold.
That part would still occur.
If they wanted to challenge the decision of the committee,
then they would have to go to court.
Which they can do now, if they're
unhappy with the decision made by this body.
>> Commissioners, we have to get to a point where we're making
a recommendation to them of our options.
One 2 or 3.
We were, it sounded like we were in consensus.
It sounds like we're splitting.
Commissioner Wilson has tagged in.
Then Commissioner Uribe.
And then Byron I'm coming to you for -- okay.
Let me just close after that.
Commissioner Wilson, go ahead.
>> I just wanted to say I continue to support
the recommendations.
I believe an independent arbitrator at that stage
is critical.
At that level it's supposed to be
balls and strikes being called.
And those are factual findings.
For us to be in a position to be lobbied to,
I think complicates the situation.
Then the bandwidth for whoever has the best lobbying team
ends up being sort of a louder voice in the room.
I'm very comfortable at that stage, this recommendation.
>> Okay, I actually have a solution because I am not.
We represent people and we represent
business owners and that's part of our job being here.
Some of us in society are involved in the RFP.
Not all of us are.
And that's just the way it is.
But I would actually like to offer a solution
that I get very nervous when staff's in charge of everything.
And the people who were elected here to represent everyone out
there has no footprint on this.
I can't control which electives come and actually serve.
I know where I have been.
Can we find a way that when you are --
and to me adding more staff members is just confirming us
not being involved.
Could there be an option that the commissioner --
because when I disagreed with one of the decisions,
when it came back, I wasn't even on it to actually make that
influence, which is the one I was assigned to.
Is it possible to put a threshold in there
that the commissioner that was actually in that application
have the opportunity to be one of those additional three staff
members?
So there is that open transparent
and I, from elected officials.
I'm good with option three.
I would just instead of three staff members, two staff members
and the commissioner that actually would
have been assigned to the case.
>> One thing I'll offer Commissioner,
is we are talking about RFP and RFP is.
This would be one process for any solicitation type
and there is no commissioner assigned when it
comes to invitation for bids.
>> So let's look at RFP.
Can we define that as RFP as.
We are good enough to be on there when it's Bidded
but we're not good enough to be on there when it's protested.
It's a concern to me.
This is an elected body.
To be transparent with the public.
Staff controlling everything, not undermining what you do,
but this division and almost like what Commissioner
Scott kind of said, my boss is on there,
my colleagues on there, do we really stand up for the company
that we grow?
It allows at least some decency without it having
to come back before the BCC.
>> What I would note though is, the board under that option
would have to make the commitment that they would
actually participate.
>> You can't make them participate anyways.
>> I'm saying it's part of the process here.
>> What's wrong with that?
I felt it was wrong.
Excuse me.
Let me.
When that one, when I agreed that it was not fair,
when I came back and it was protested,
I didn't get to be on it.
Which I was the one that actually got all the information
and knew what was out there and why it was being protested.
That's a big concern to me.
I mean we're elected to present the people.
When you put this all on staff, now you're
having staff be in control of everything.
And not giving that option to the person who would
have been part of that decision in the first place.
To not be able to actually influence us at all.
>> The board considers that it is important as part
of the protest process that there is representation.
That was also one of those feedback
that we recognize that for the protest
that there was a desire to ensure that there was
full attendance in those protest hearings and the protest
process.
As well as we hate to be in a situation
where there are only two people because then
it would be a 1 to 1 tie.
I understand that --
>> I have a suggestion that might be helpful.
We could add another layer.
We could do -- they go to the procurement manager,
they're unhappy with the decision,
they go to this protest committee.
If they're unhappy with that decision,
then they come to the board.
It's a lengthier process.
And I doubt many would take advantage of it because usually,
we really have people who actually take the appeal
that we currently have now.
But that would be an option that could satisfy you,
if that's something you all wanted us to write in their.
We can absolutely do that.
It's up to you.
>> I just think there has to be a level of transparency.
>> That's fine.
>> And there have been a couple of things over the years that I
have questioned.
Not you.
The people involved making the decision.
>> Absolutely.
>> Especially Commissioner Scott,
when you had the boss and you had the person who worked
for the boss on the board, and on the committee,
making that decision.
That's where I'm worried.
That's a concern.
I don't know how you all feel.
>> Commissioner what I'm hearing now is a hybrid option where
we're looking at basically number three.
But we're adding an additional layer
where it would say replace the current process with decision
by procurement manager.
Appeal with the protest committee comprised of three
staff members appointed by the county administrator..
Then appeal to the hearing to the BCC or something.
Is that what you're proposing as a hybrid?
>> It's absolutely up to you.
That was just a suggestion.
>> To clarify, what you're actually saying is this plus
come to the BCC.
So you're worried about the votes?
We're worried about that odd number.
I know Byron said, will that commissioner actually attend?
Wasn't that the concern?
Was how --
>> (indiscernible).
>> You say due process N1 but then you throw it out we were
part of the decision in the first place,
but then we're not part of the appeal.
That is not due process.
>> I will say it's very unusual in a proceeding where someone is
appealing a decision to have the person who originally made
the decision involved in the appeal.
In fact I can tell you in the past agencies I've worked for,
I have actually advocated for board members
not to serve on procurements for that very reason period
so they ultimately don't have to decide
on an appeal of a decision they made originally.
I mean if you think about it -- we're trying to get away from
that.
As an attorney, I will tell you any court process,
a normal process in court, you appear before a judge.
If you are unhappy with that judge's decision,
you don't go back to that same judge.
Generally you go to an appeals court
and that appeals court will make a decision
on whether they thought that judge made
an appropriate decision or not.
Sometimes they send you back but it's back with instructions,
not to do it differently.
It is unusual to have a process whereby
you make the initial decision and you decide the appeal.
That is one of the reasons why we want to take it out
of the hands of the procurement committee
and we suggested this appeal committee.
Because it is odd.
And people have expressed concerns over that process.
Whereby you appear before the procurement committee who
scores your submittal and then when
you are unhappy with the way you scored your submittal
you go back to them and ask them to do it again.
It's -- that's unusual in terms of the type of initial decision
and appeal.
>> That might help.
Now if you get to ask a commissioner
to be there, so no longer is it the one,
you're offering to ask a commissioner to step in
on the appeal process.
We're going to have eight of us.
You have a better odd than a commissioner will actually
be present then is not.
If you believe that, because three staff members is --
I've sat in some, I don't want to bring it up right now,
they're very uncomfortable that we're approved.
And I have been boisterous about this.
This to me is leaving a layer of transparency closed off.
Having a commissioner as opposed to the commissioner,
I'd be open to that, considering what you're saying
is you're already part of the process,
this is what you agreed on, are you
going to be trying to be influenced?
>>, I disagree.
I think the lobbying difference with the Board of County
Commission or any elected is very
different than an independent judiciary.
And I think there's --
>> I'm saying instead of having three staff members offer
a commissioner to be there.
That's the transparency.
That's where we get to look out for the businesses.
>> I mean I don't vote there.
I vote here.
I'm in the process of.
But really, why are we going to --
>> Can I propose, just one, you guys,
unless it's like a contentious protest,
generally we'll move it forward without a briefing.
Or you'll give us a briefing.
I would ask, in this process, and I
think this might get what you're looking for,
Commissioner, I hope, give them the option, if that makes sense.
They could have like the two step process.
Where there's one process to proper to the contractor.
Hey, you can go through this process
or you can go through this process with the commissioners.
If I choose a particular process,
I'm good with the outcome.
>> It's like an opt out clause.
>> And then they choose how they want to protest.
Hey, I want to go through staff.
So keep the option three but add an additional process
that allow them to go through the commissioners
if they decide.
But also it's binding.
But the commissioner, (indiscernible).
It would be maybe that Commissioner in the staff.
Could we offer them two processes?
And let them decide?
>> Oh I can offer commissioners is the feedback we got from
the business community.
They want one process.
It created confusion with some of their legal counsel quite
frankly to understand which process they needed to navigate.
It's been confusing for attorneys.
We were desiring and based on the feedback
from businesses to have a single protest process that
would apply to all.
Rather than you can choose paths or this applies to that.
>> Let's be realistic.
They're going to choose to come to the board.
For different reasons.
Offering that, really as an option
because I think they come to the board or go through the protest.
It really needs to be one or the other.
>> That's how we found out the red light camera one.
Because I had -- the rules changed.
The whole application changed.
When you took the minority and women out of
it and it completely went different.
And then when it actually got appealed,
it went completely different again.
>> The board already has that discretion.
The county has that discretion to cancel any RFP process.
It was just a matter in that particular case of how
you were bringing that forward.
Because of the law and the way it was written at that point.
That we would just not count that category.
It was a matter that has to do with the language
or anything of that nature.
That was a discretionary matter in this case.
More than an appeal process the board made.
The choice to exercise your option to always cancel an RFP
and start over.
Slightly different.
>> Without being able to adjust the application.
So when you apply with a certain rules and those rules change, --
the protest.
That's really what I was trying to get to.
>> We do have one other suggestion that may alleviate
your concern.
If you were to go with option three, where
it went to an appeals committee that was made up of three staff
members, we could make sure that a report or some sort
of communication was issued to all of you
so that you're aware that this particular procurement went
through this process.
When it comes to you for approval,
you would already know this person has protested.
It was decided this way by both the procurement manager
and this appeals committee.
And then you could take that into account
when the solicitation comes before you.
Would that work?
>> But for all of them.
>> We do that generally.
If there's a procurement that's advancing to the board.
We always identify if a protest was filed.
How it was resolved.
We would go into greater detail, obviously, if there was --
to give you that detail.
But they are included in the agenda items.
>> Sometimes we get ambushed in the meetings.
And that way just have a procurement report from you all.
>> So just like we do the monthly report of the contract
reports, we could create a monthly report of the protest
essentially, and the resolution thereof.
That's easy enough to do that.
>> That sounds like a winner.
So you have consensus.
>> So do you need to adjust that report?
We just want to make sure it's due process.
>> That's fine.
>> So with an ordinance --
>> We're going to do all of these things to make sure
you're comfortable.
>> I mean, this is a general overview of the changes.
There will be some other changes within there.
But they're mostly administrative Eric
you'll see the ordinance, our proposed changes
prior to coming to you for a decision.
And we will be bringing it back for a public hearing.
We will do another presentation.
All of that before you actually decide.
>> Thank you.
Now we'll bring up Kelly Noel, chief engineer public works,
fiscal and operational support Division,
to present an update on the accelerated Transportation
Safety Program.
AtSb.
We have no request to board action on this item.
Thank you.
>> Good morning.
It's still morning.
So good morning.
Vice mayor.
Commissioners.
Comptroller diamonds.
Administrator books.
I'm here to talk to you about the accelerated Transportation
safety program.
This is a five year program addressing
critical transportation infrastructure needs.
The program began in 2023.
It's a five year program and it's reaching
a midway point in the program.
We'd like to give you an update on how we got here.
The programs we had in place prior to this AtSb
as well as tell you a little bit of the achievements
we've been able to accomplish.
Our progress to date.
And other advancements in the field and give you
a summary, an idea of what to expect in the second half
of this program.
A little bit of background.
We developed a comprehensive plan
to support the transportation sales tax initiative.
Back in 2022.
In that plan there were major infrastructure improvements
such as roadway and transit improvements proposed,
as well as minor but still critical
sidewalk, roadway, lighting, and other safety improvements.
That was the origins of AtSb.
And although the voters did not approve that sales tax ballot
measure, the critical item still remain.
So staff developed a plan to address
these critical infrastructure improvements with a short term
implementation in mind.
As well as Vision Zero safety concerns.
This would utilize existing revenue sources.
Such as existing -- coming from state sales tax and leverage
from projected increases in gas taxes over the following five
years.
Here's a timeline of the AtSb development
period in May of 2023, briefings occurred
where we solicited input on lighting,
sidewalk, safety improvements, as well as transit improvements.
The following month in June there
was a work session held in which the program
framework and the project lists were presented
to the commissioners and a key point of this program
was to frontload some of the simpler less complex projects
early on.
So the more complex projects could actually
kick off at the beginning of the project, the program,
and then carry through at the midpoint of the program.
In the following months, the program
was approved as part of the fiscal year 23, 24 CIP budget.
And on October 1st, 2023, the Accelerated Transportation
Safety Program officially began.
For all of you, the accelerated Transportation Safety Program
is the 100 year, $100 million five year program. $55 million
go into the county for sidewalks, roadway lighting,
and safety improvements. $45 million
going to transit and links for increased operational frequency
as well as capital project bus shelters.
I actually have Mr. James Boyle and Tiffany Homer Hawkins
here with links today who, Mr. James Boyle will be presenting
on the transit slides.
These are the slides and this is what was presented back in 2023.
The sidewalk lighting and safety projects.
As a result of those discussions with the commissioners
prior to approval and these are the transit projects
and improvements we are also discussing
with the commissioners at the time.
In talking about a TSP framework,
we had several programs in place.
Prior to TSP.
That included the CIP sidewalk program.
The CIP lighting program and also one that's
more recent investment of the zero safety programs.
These programs I'll talk about initially
so we can see how it teed up the TSP framework.
As well as emphasize how the TSP was
able to supplement that investment.
So that we could make bigger progress
toward completing our goals.
First sidewalks.
Sidewalks are a proven safety countermeasure
according to the Federal Highway Administration
we can expect up to an 89% reduction in pedestrian crashes.
As a result of providing sidewalks
on both sides of the road.
Also, additionally, the county maintains the Ada transition
plan.
In which we actually upgrade and improve
accessibility on all our county facilities.
Beginning in the 1990s, the CIP sidewalk program,
came about as a result of sidewalk connectivity and school
walkability concerns.
And although there have been varying levels of budget
to support the sidewalk construction,
the current budget is set at $3.3 million annually.
Producing seven miles of sidewalk.
The remaining needs as determined before AtSb
was over 170 miles of sidewalk gaps
and that would take, at this current funding level, 20 years
to complete that existing program.
Enter TSP.
With an investment of $25 million
to produce 22 miles of sidewalk, this
is a small drop in the bucket and we still
expect to have 151 miles left after this program
and as these remaining gaps are getting costlier
to build as they often require design and permitting
and the inflationary impacts, we're
expecting it's going to take at least 33 years to complete that.
Moving over to the roadway lighting program,
roadway lighting is a proven safety countermeasure as well.
According to the Federal Highway Administration.
The nighttime mortality crash rate is three times that.
Of the daytime crash rate.
And the simplest solution and the most effective solution
is investment in roadway lighting.
Where we can see an up to 42% reduction in pedestrian injury
crashes.
At intersections with the use of roadway lighting.
The history of the CIP roadway lighting program
and how we work with our partners,
we have OUC and Duke Energy who can, who we partner with.
The county identifies the projects and Duke Energy
and oh you see, they scheduled the design and installation
as well as the county paying the capital charges for that design
and installation.
And paying the ongoing maintenance charges.
All designs meet Fdo standards and as a side note,
under Florida statutes, the lighting on local roads
is administered by the county controller's office.
A little idea of the history since the year 2000.
The CIP roadway lighting program has actually
been able to cover 385 miles of arterial and collector roads.
Under this program.
As a result, we were able to find
that 166 miles are remaining on arterial collector roads.
With the investment of $15 million under a TSP,
we're expecting that installation
of 131 miles of lighting on the arterial collector roads,
with the remaining needs of approximately 25 miles.
However, we don't have the additional funding
for roadway lighting outside of funded CIP roadway projects.
As the current lighting program addresses pedestrian safety
but at intersections only.
Moving on to the Vision Zero Safety program,
vision Zero safety initiatives, have been implemented
at the federal, state, and regional levels to support --
to promote the safety systems approach to road user safety.
In August 2022, the board approved Vision Zero resolution
that is to eliminate fatalities on our transportation systems
by the year 2040.
Two years later, the Vision Zero Action Plan was approved.
By the board.
Which identified the top 24 projects
with approximately $251 million.
Subsequently the board approved an annual budget of $2.5 million
annually to meet those Vision Zero goals.
These efforts were recognized recently
by the National Association of Counties.
As a best in Category Award.
As far as the safety program goes,
the TSP funds, the $15 million over the five years
to fund those nine major corridors,
those corridors were identified prior to the Vision Zero Action
Plan.
The remaining needs after a TSP still
remain those 24 corridors at $251 million.
This investment of $2.5 million under the Vision Zero
is a small drop in the bucket and makes a little bit
of a dent in the overall needs.
Would take about 100 years to complete.
Under the current funding commits.
Moving on to our progress report, from the start
we recognize the need for public transparency
of taxpayer investment in the safety program.
The website was put together ahead
of the program and several months
after the conception of the program,
the public facing dashboard was rolled out.
This is accessible to the public and updated every two weeks.
It shows both links and county Projects and their status as.
One of our major goals is to refresh this website
to further highlight the successes of the program.
We have also been bringing the news to the residents.
Through newsletters at the neighborhood level
as well as through social media.
We've been presenting at ESP successes.
Completed projects.
Projects and construction and planning.
That's come through over 70 project newsletters
and over 60 social media posts through the county's
major social media platforms.
We also want to extend our gratitude to the commissioners.
For their ongoing support in amplifying these messages.
And helping be an active part of our communication strategy
to help residents know and learn about our safety projects
and how it benefits the community.
As our goal under at ESP is to build safety projects quickly,
we have successfully employed a variety of methods
to carry this out.
We program projects early on in the projects
so we can get to the more complex projects with higher
budgets to construction by the second half of this program
and complete by the end of this program.
We've also been augmenting our staff
with project management on the project management side
and on the construction inspection side.
We've been bundling projects to save time and money
and understanding our funds are limited
in that to offset inflation effects we've been constructing
quickly and one of the major successes coming out
of this program is the use of the term construction contract.
To accelerate the delivery of sidewalk projects.
That results in a savings of time
and a cost savings of over $5 million,
as we employ this strategy.
Keep that in mind as we look at the next few slides.
Here's the overall program spending
from the start of the program.
The blue bar represents the overall $100 million
program pair combined between Orange County and Links.
And the Orange Bar shows our progress spending
to date we are currently at $40.6 million spent.
Breaking down ATSP into the smaller programs for a sidewalk,
lighting, safety and transit, the blue bar
represents have any money allocated to each program
and how many projects we're expected at 2023 to be planned
under that allocation.
We are under the halfway point under each category
and as I mentioned, we're able to achieve significant savings
through construction management, project bundling,
and that use of term contracts.
Thus we are able to maximize efficiencies
in our spending which still helps to mitigate but not
fully offset the effects of inflation.
And as our more complex projects are kicking off, now
in the construction phases, those
are projects that have larger budgets.
We expect there to be an uptick in construction spending.
Looking across all of the categories,
we are making good progress with 117 projects completed
on the public works side.
That translates to 19 miles of sidewalk.
Over 26 miles of roadway lighting.
And 24 corridor miles of corridor with improved safety
measures.
At this moment I'm going to pass this
along to Mr. James Boyle who will take it over
for transit accomplishments.
>> All right thank you Kelly.
Good morning Vice Mayor, members of the commission.
James Boyle.
Chief development officer I'm happy to be here in front of you
to talk about the success.
What it means to links writers and for the community overall.
To date we have completed all of our service enhancements.
Six routes that we identified where we increased frequency.
There were four routes that we extended service to
to connect to the Pine Hills Transfer Center
that we talked about a little bit at the last time I was here.
We also have used the funds to create a new route.
The link 311.
And then on our capital side, with our bus stops,
we have been very robust.
We've upped our ante in delivering
the number of bus shelters and bus stops
throughout the service area.
Typically we average about 25 bus stops a year.
And we are now up to 75.
We're using a lot of our on call contractors and consultants
to help deliver those bus shelters.
And every commission district has received new bus shelters
and still will be receiving new bus shelters.
On the server side, the chart shows the increase
in weekday average weekday ridership
for routes that did receive frequency enhancements.
You can see for links come on route 474125.
Those all received frequency increases
and you can see just by that alone, the ridership goes up.
The more often a bus comes the more likely
you are to get people to use it.
That's a good thing.
That's the number one thing from riders and Non-riders.
I would ride the bus if it came more often.
We didn't stop on weekday.
A big opportunity for transit is adding more service on weekends.
We looked at our Sundays where we
had a lot of routes that only ran once an hour.
We picked several routes to increase the frequency
to 30 minutes on those routes.
You can see the ridership there speaks for itself.
The increases on all those routes.
The continuation of the progress we have been able to implement,
the 311, which I briefly spoke about earlier this
is a new route that basically connects
the Orlando International Airport to SunRail,
to Disney Springs.
It's a great route.
Ridership has been doing well.
This is the airport connector to SunRail and Disney Springs.
As a side note it does to Epic Universe,
which they pay for separately.
We were also able to extend links, route nine, route
44, 48 and 49, to connect to Pine Hills.
This has been a great success for the passengers who ride
those bus routes in that area.
And then overall, the ridership increase that we've seen
for the past year on all the routes that we've approved
service on, it equates to about 735,000 trips a year.
For our links, for our riders, this has been a great success
and we thank the county for providing funds to links for us
to be able to do that.
Thank you.
I'm going to turn it back over to Kelly.
>> Coming back to the public works side,
we have completed those 117 projects and with the remainder
of this program's funding, we expect to complete those
projects that are under production.
Those are projects identified as under construction and design
and in the planning stages.
A little bit more about that.
In production projects are those projects
that are in construction.
We actually are pleased to announce
that one of the two signals on the clear Kona CoA quarter
this is located at the Fountain West Boulevard,
has just opened this past week and we're celebrating that
with another pedestrian signal and two more on Turkey Lake
Road that are going to be turned on in the coming months.
We also have more projects that are in the design and planning
stages.
And we show those removed and reprioritize projects listed
at the bottom of this chart.
These are projects that we have found
to have additional concerns as we evaluated them.
The removed projects were identified
due to projects that were subsequently annexed
after the start of the program.
Or projects that were identified and funded
under other programs such as the Ada Transition Program.
Those projects are not going to be funded under a TSP.
Coming back to this progress, the spending graph,
the blue bar on the right does show the budget amount
for each category and the number of projects that were projected
that we could complete.
The left represents our completed projects as well as
production spending.
This orange line at the top of each category
represents our full utilization of that allotted budget
and how many more projects we expect
to be able to complete by the end of the program.
Due to inflation we are limited in being
able to deliver the full list as approved by the board
and we expect to deliver those in production projects.
Taking a look at the map of projects,
this is the project shown in blue,
the projects that were originally
approved by the board in 2023.
Looking at this next map, these are
the projects currently completed and in production.
117 projects shown in dark green with projects in production,
86 of them, shown in the lighter green.
And here's a map of the Reprioritized project.
These are projects that were identified to have limitations
in the right of way.
Constraints and funding as we lack
matching grants and concerns that
were raised by the community.
They comprise a small portion by count and by mileage
of the overall program.
At the start of this program with the board's direction,
staff has prioritized projects for public health,
safety, and known risk factors and while availability
of remaining funds may limit our ability
to construct a reprioritized project under this program,
the reasons that they're on the list, for the most part,
still remain.
Under the Vision Zero resolution approved by the board,
we prioritize safety on all our transportation systems.
And therefore we'll be bringing this list
of reprioritized projects and recommendations
back for later discussion with the board.
Let's talk a little bit more.
Switching gears towards how, since the beginning of a TSP,
we've worked with our consultants
to stay up to date on prioritizations and assessments
and keeping up with the latest standards.
Again, award winning Naco award winning project.
The sidewalk assessment.
Windows completed in 2025.
Developed a comprehensive inventory.
Missing sidewalk gaps countywide.
And the prioritization metric and weighting factors as
determined by input from the commissioners.
This potentially turns the sidewalk program
into a proactive effort that -- to fill those missing sidewalk
gaps.
Additionally on the roadway lighting front,
the fDOT design manual now has updates
to allow the use of warmer color temperatures
in the appropriate context of surrounding conditions.
Utility company is now offer dark sky option.
That varies across different companies.
Those were not available at the start of the program in 2023.
That does include lower color temperature and warmer hues
as well as full cutoff fixtures to prevent light
from traveling upwards.
On the Vision Zero safety front, as I mentioned earlier,
the action plan was approved in 2024
and that identified those top 24 projects
and additionally it also developed a toolkit
of countermeasures for use on public works Safe Vision Zero
safety projects.
In summary, Orange County and Lynx
has been using innovative strategies
to meet the program objectives to implement
those projects quickly and follow the Vision Zero Safety
Strategy.
We are on target with $40.6 million spent to date period
completing those 19 miles of sidewalk,
over 26 miles of roadway lighting, 24 miles of upgraded
corridors, ten enhanced bus routes, one new Lynx
route, and 72 bus shelters.
As we reach the end of the program
and by the end of the program Orange County
expects to complete the original program list,
except for those reprioritized projects,
due to financial constraints.
And links will continue those operational improvements
through the end of this program and expects
to complete all 264 bus shelters using AtSb funding
and supplemented by federal funding.
Next steps are to report back to the board by spring of 2027
to discuss those Reprioritized projects and advanced sidewalk
and roadway lighting policies.
To update and share a new AtSb website
and to continue to bring innovative cost saving
measures to bring those safety projects to the community.
In closing, I would like to acknowledge
the hard work, demonstrated by the combined public works
and Lynx teams.
This is a collaborative effort.
Our talented and resourceful staff
has been working hard to make sure we continue
to meet the goals of the accelerated Transportation
Safety Program.
To deliver safety projects quickly and responsibly
to the public.
This concludes my presentation.
Thank you very much.
And we're here for any questions.
>> Thank you, Kelly for the presentation, and the team.
We'll go to the board for questions, comments?
Commissioner Wilson?
>> Thank you so much.
I just want to start by saying that you're
very kind for thanking us for our support.
I know that I pester you all almost every day about something
safety related out there and to see the accomplishments, to see
the actual national evaluation of these efforts,
it confirms that we're on the right path and on those days,
it's really annoying to continue to try to work through,
it's good to know we're doing the right things.
I had a question understanding that this is one of the one time
investments that we really felt was important because it aligned
with Division Zero and all the things
that we're trying to do to keep people safe.
Some of these, will hopefully continue on.
I'm thinking specifically about links and the results
that Lynx has had in seeing ridership.
Honestly when I got this presentation
I was so excited to see that it approves
what we see all the time.
That if it's convenient and frequent and attractive
that it's going to get ridership.
That felt like a pilot program to me.
A pilot program only does any good
if you have a long term plan of how
to make sure we continue that.
I guess my question is, is there an opportunity for funding
matches, grants, state funding opportunities
to try to continue along this path, knowing
we're going to continue to be constrained
as a local government, based on what we know
is coming down the pipeline?
>> I let James jump in.
Because I think your focus is more on transit.
And then I'll jump in.
>> Great question, Commissioner Wilson.
On the transit side there's always opportunities for us
to see additional funding.
Grants and things like that.
Obviously it's for transit it's more on the capital side
where it's easier to get grants than do
the operational improvements.
But the Dot does have service development grants
that we can do things operationally.
At the end of the program, we would reevaluate everything
as we kind of always do on an annual basis with our service
and we would work with the county staff
to identify other efficiencies in the system
where we might make some adjustments to save
some of the improvements we've done to the AtSb funding.
It would not all just come to an end period
we would look at it holistically and then decide
if we need to move things around and how we
can do >> That's great to hear.
Is there an opportunity to leverage the success?
I think oftentimes when we struggle
with justifying funding, people like
to point out ridership issues.
Which I will forever say as a public service and quite
frankly you have to put it out there for there to be ridership
and this is proving that.
Will this give you any continued opportunity
that maybe you didn't have before the investment?
>> I would say yes.
It is a good news story.
It shows that we've taken the dollars.
We've used those dollars right away.
And we have been able to show the increases in ridership
and the number of trips passengers are taking.
And just kind of anecdotally hearing folks
say they have their transfer time cut in half.
Those things go a long way.
Especially for a future endeavors
that we could point back to and say this was a great success
and we would like to continue that.
>> I agree.
You're going to hear it coming out of my mouth.
I am incredibly grateful for the investment but also the outcome
that we're seeing.
My final question was, about that new route.
Sorry, I forgot you again.
About the new route, understanding it
is very specifically targeted towards our tourism corridor.
It goes from Disney Springs to the airport.
We understand that it's been a great benefit to our --
it's a great benefit to our tourism industry by having this
direct connection.
Are there any tourist development tax dollars that
make its way to this, knowing it is
a clear benefit to our tourism corridor
and to tourism industry?
>> This particular route is funded through AtSb and Orange
County dollars.
There's no funding that pays for this particular route.
It's strictly from what the county gives us
on the annual basis to fund the services and then
part of the AtSb.
However we did do a partnership with the Shingle Creek Utility
District for universal to connect their.
And we do have other agreements and partnerships
with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight
District for Disney routes.
There's an opportunity there.
>> Is that within Disney or does that include the route
to and from the airport?
>> That is not for the 311.
The 311 is strictly just general funds
from Orange County and AtSb.
>> Obviously I think it's a timely conversation for us.
We're wrestling right now with the future of TT.
Thank you for humoring me but I wanted
to point out that there is an obvious benefit to our tourism
industry.
As well as the visitors who come in and finding those investment
dollars where we have them and where they've been stable
is critical now but will continue
to be so because this is definitive in its funding
source.
Thank you so much.
>> Thank you Commissioner Wilson Commissioner Uribe?
>> Brian you didn't have to leave.
When we look at the tourism corridor,
how many locations are there where
there are stops and so forth?
Not only for the people that work
there but the people who use it because they
visit our community?
Can you give us a little bit of overlay on that?
And
>> I'll do my best.
Pull numbers from what I can remember.
The majority of our routes double
a huge number of our routes serve the tourism district.
I drive.
Disney universal.
And based on our last owned origin and destination survey,
almost 50% of our trips are people working in that area.
A lot of our ridership is derived
from folks working in the service industry
and serving in particular the heavy tourism
district in those areas.
We're talking about thousands of trips a day.
Well over 6000 7000 trips a day.
In those general areas or those specific corridors
on very specific routes.
It's very close to 50% of our ridership
is for the service industry.
It's very high.
>> I agree we should look to get some tourism dollars to help
you.
Are all of your locations actually covered and so forth
or are there still some that we need to get in that quarter?
>> We think we do a great job of trying to get as much as we can
of the resources we have.
Obviously there's other areas we would like
to serve a little bit better.
Adding more frequency really is the key to it.
It's not so much adding new routes.
It's taking what we have.
>> I was actually saying areas where folks can stand.
>> O, shelters.
There's always a need for more shelters.
We could have taken more of that funding
and put it toward more shelters.
It's kind of a trade off a little bit.
If you have a more frequent service,
you don't have to worry about people standing out
in the hot sun and thunderstorms come up waiting
30 minutes or an hour for bus.
>> Jim Harrison, who we miss, you know when we went to you
guys and said look, (indiscernible).
The exact example of us all working together and talking.
I appreciate it.
It was obviously a loaded question,
but we're just trying to find more funding that isn't
all codependent on taxpayers.
I understand.
I'll move on.
Thank you.
>> First of all, I want to thank you guys.
It's a double edged sword when we've gone and tried
to do sidewalks and communities it's been interesting.
No, we barely have a front yard.
You're coming into our right of way.
I want to give you all credit.
When I bothered Susan, and I think all of us
have sent her or sent in issues of concern.
When was a bus stop for an elementary school
that had no sidewalk.
The kids were actually standing on the road,
waiting for the bus stop to come, and knowing now
there's a sidewalk period that community has been so helpful.
I also want to give kudos for when
you're going over infrastructure and you have the bars to protect
people who are walking.
Which kind of gives that additional Ada production
of individuals.
I want to say that's been great.
I did have a question on the lighting.
That is a hot item.
When do you guys make decisions of prioritizing certain areas
compared to others.
I will say that econ has been something that prior to me
getting here eight years ago was a hot item.
But it just hasn't made its level up to get that.
It's concerning because there's residential right on the road.
There's an elementary school right on the road.
And while you guys have done that little quarter
around the school, there's clearly,
it's just such a dark non-straight road
with residential on both sides.
Can you explain to me that criteria
so that I can tell my constituents why they are still
not getting streetlights?
>> There's shared responsibility between public works
and the controller's office, depending on what kind of road
that roadway lighting is requested
on if it's a functionally classified arterial
and collector roads, the board has demonstrated the willingness
to support those roadway lighting projects on those
functionally classified roads.
If it is an aside as a local road,
those requests go to the controller's office
for administering the process.
Setting up something like an MSP you to be
able to pay for that funding.
>> That's a specific area where it's not very organized.
I believe it's like one acre or two homes per acre or something
like that.
It's very broad.
But then you've got an elementary school.
So how do we handle?
>> That's something we we do handle on a case by case basis.
Just because we might identify quickly that oh
this is a local road.
We still take that in through public works
and try to identify as much as possible before,
who is responsible before coordinating.
>> If I can comment I would love to have an update on that
because it's not necessarily a neighborhood road,
it's much more specific.
It's an actual road.
It's a major road corridor for the county.
>> Okay.
Is that the one that's south of Deerwood Elementary?
>> Yes.
It's right on Deerwood Elementary.
>> I ride that one too.
>> Thank you.
Commissioner Kordell?
>> Yeah thank you.
I have a question, Kelly, and I think we discussed it yesterday.
But I wanted to ask you, in the slide number
29, the orange column means that, that's what's completed.
Based on the new column?
>>, the orange bar represents how much has been spent to date
and that's on projects that are already completed as well
as progress spending on projects that are in production.
Maybe a percentage of that 9 million under sidewalks
is for completed projects but we also
have projects that are in design and under construction
and not yet complete.
This bar represents how much progress spending to date.
As compared to what the blue bar is the blue bar
is when we're done.
This is the full amount of funding for each category.
>>, that means that based on what I'm seeing here,
that if we still have the sidewalk, 110 projects,
that's million, 25 million?
But we have done 60.
For example, for the money we have there,
maybe we won't complete the 110 projects, right?
Because the money is not -- >> The bars can be a little
misleading to because it shows what's been spent and not
what's been encumbered.
There's a good percentage that has been encumbered
beyond that orange bar that's been set aside and reserved
because we know, as we finish that project,
this is what it's going to take.
I really should have shown all three bars so that you can see,
this is actually what's gone out the door.
Has gone towards contractors.
Towards design firms, to complete these projects.
How much has been set aside so that as we complete
those projects, this is how much we
expect to be spending and that blue bar of the limitation
of the budget allocation.
I'll be able to get you those updated numbers
so you can get an idea.
>> Because I still think that the money won't be enough.
>> It won't be enough for all the projects originally planned
under a TSP back in 2023.
But we do expect to be able to complete,
I believe it's slide 40, where we
kind of talk about how many projects are under production.
Those additional projects, the 16 projects, those
are the ones that we expect to further complete
as we complete this program.
>> So then in slide 28, it says here that we already spent 40.6
million from the 100?
>> Yes.
That's adding together all those orange bars
on the following slide.
I kind of summed them all up and broke them out.
>> Okay.
Thank you.
>> Commissioner Scott, I don't have you on the screen.
Can you try again?
>> I just wanted to say thank you.
Bus shelters have been installed the past week.
I think they finished up the Oak Ridge corridor.
Commissioner, right up (indiscernible).
I just wanted to say thank you.
I'm happy with the program.
Thank you Vice Mayor.
>> Kelly thank you so much.
My comments are congratulations on all
the projects that your team finished
and the safety improvements you've made.
For all of that.
So, I just want to keep always putting it
on public record with Wedgefield because it's
a sensitive community because of the water and sewage issues
that they are facing.
And we all understand the pots of money and such.
They are they're conscious of how
they're taxpayer money is going on infrastructure.
The stoplights that we put in on Bancroft
when they had a dark sky ordinance in effect.
Way out in the middle of the rural area.
It's kind of like an airplane trip landing at night.
And they're very frustrated by it still.
I know that over the course of time
we're going to try to correct it.
I just want to make sure that I remind you
on behalf of the community that are anxiously awaiting.
>> I appreciate the reminder.
Overall I appreciate that this is a team effort.
Everybody at Public Works as well.
As Duke Energy.
Thank you for the reminder.
We will be looking to be able to address
further as we have funding.
>> Thank you.
I have some good news.
There are some communities like in Christmas
where they are not interested in receiving the light.
And then we have other communities
that didn't make the list.
I just wanted to bring up Bithlo.
I know we have a small scale study that's going on right now
for safety improvements.
I just wanted to bring up that that
is a high pedestrian high bicycle community.
That doesn't have sidewalks or lights
and so there is a high fatality of people who
have been unfortunately hit.
The community has been asking for speed plates.
Going down sixth Street headed towards community park.
I've heard since I knocked on doors
since the days of Commissioner Ted Edwards
so it has been a very long time and we do have a study going on,
but I want to bring to the forefront that we do need safety
improvements and by flow.
With that being said, as Lynx is here,
we have a bus stop in Bithlo.
And I see McKinney is here.
It's near Transportation Village.
And I want to make sure that route
is remaining intact, functional, and is going nowhere.
Like it's there for the people.
>> I will follow up on that.
We'll get back with you.
We're trying to schedule one on one meetings with your offices
just to follow up from the budget meeting.
We can talk about that with more detail.
>> Thank you.
I would like to say I agree with Commissioner
Wilson, Commissioner Uribe.
We talk about TT and how it should
fund some of the Lynx routes.
More than 50% of the Lynx routes service tourist attractions.
More than 50% means we have a lot of tourists that are on that
and I think also this board should consider
looking at something where we do a formal assessment of how
much money is actually being spent on marketing,
once we pass that 40% threshold.
It does open the state statute for use in transit.
There are so many events that the state
doesn't have a definition of destination marketing.
There's no definition for it.
When we have events like immersion that exist exclusively
and only to promote Orlando and it's
receiving millions of dollars in taxpayer money,
that should count towards marketing.
All the sports events that we do, life Orlando
when it's WWE or the Jaguars.
That is constant marketing for the destination.
Maybe we are to the point where once we look at how much we're
actually spending on marketing, we're past that threshold
and I think we should look at that.
I also support the use of TT to help fund our transit
and hopefully that would add to your budget
so that you could continue to serve us all in safety.
Does anybody have any other comments?
So the next agenda item, we are moving to is --
thank you Kelly and Team.
Thank you very much.
And we are moving to Commissioner Wilson
to present her report on the countywide prohibition
on the importation of exotic wildlife.
Commissioner Wilson.
>> Thank you.
I was going to say, you all have been with me long enough now
to know that typically if I get near technology it goes down.
I'll do the best I can but it is a pretty rudimentary
presentation today because I think this is our starting point
and I want to make sure that what I'm doing here
is getting you all up to speed getting the public up to speed
and then providing some potential interactions
with the county attorney's office.
Or anybody else who has some thoughts.
And then making recommendations.
We'll start with the goal today is
to think about what we can do to prevent another sloth world
tragedy.
For those of you who followed along
know there was a devastating series of events.
Beginning in late 2020 for shipments of sloths
arrived from South America and ultimately were
housed in conditions that proved to be catastrophic.
21 sloths arrived from Guyana to unequipped Orlando warehouse
on International Drive.
Actually, it was an Orange County warehouse
that lacked running water and electricity.
Space heaters that were powered by extension cords
failed overnight after a tripping fuze and 21 sloths
died from that cold stunt.
As it turns out, they starved to death
because they have a microbe in their belly
that helps them digest their food
and that microbe dies in the cold.
They literally starve to death in their bodies,
even though they have food.
The second shipment of sloths arrived from Peru.
Given they were dead upon arrival.
And remaining eight were emancipated and subsequently
died.
Raising the initial death toll to 31.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
inspected the facility in spring, summer, 2025.
They had the opportunity to inspect the facility.
They know the cages were too small.
They issued a verbal Warning.
A verbal Warning.
Before closing the initial review.
There was continued fatalities from their.
New shipments arrived because they
were continued to be offered permits
through fish and wildlife.
Additional deaths mounted in some of the specialized care
that we're seeing them now getting in appropriate setting.
More animals perish from malnourished, vitamin
deficiencies, linked to improper diets
and bringing the total recorded fatalities past 50.
And I think this is probably an undercount based
on what we know about shipping and the actual process of coming
to the United States and crates as a sensitive animal.
The intervention in zoo transfer happened.
I think we were starting to get the news by then.
That was reactive enforcement.
Limited local tools.
That we know we have under our existing code.
When we look at the layers of government and trying
to make sure we're addressing things that we can
under us because I know we don't want
to do an exercise at this time, we
want to do things that are actionable.
The federal government does have a key role in what could be,
I believe, making some moves from Washington
to prohibit the import of exotic wildlife.
That is not necessarily on the horizon.
But I think we continue to pressure
our local representatives that go to DC
and trying to get movement on that type of federal act.
The focus is not federal government
doesn't focus on the local land use compatibility.
That's where we come in and of course
we have heard about the failings of FWC.
They are the responsible party for captive wildlife permits
and the state's structure, the rulemaking that
has been put in place and the categorization of wildlife
failed these animals.
They are not required to notice us that these animals were
being imported.
If it was alligators, they would have had to notice us.
But this is something that at the state level
we need to continue to articulate and advocate
for making sure that we do a better job of getting in place
rulemaking from the state to communicate
with local governments on this type of use.
Why should we act?
I just gave you the federal and the state background.
The important part of why Orange County needs to do something
is first of all we do need land use zoning compatibility.
Licensing.
Location.
And we also know what it's like to deal with community impacts.
When things happen with our beloved animals,
we are the calls that are made.
We get the calls at our office.
And I think that gives us the unique perspective.
Additionally understanding that we received
76.7 million visitors annually and we
are a destination that's considered
a top notch destination.
One of the beautiful places to visit.
And there's no assurance that's given out
to the families traveling here that when they come and see
something in a tourist facility, it is something that
should be ethical and treating all involved
with the utmost dignity.
I have heard from many people that
believe what happened at Sloths World
has cast a dark shadow and that tourism industry.
We need to make sure we're correcting that and doing
the signaling that we're not going
to allow that to happen again.
So, there's several different options
to discuss that we may be able to hear from a little bit.
This is just a preliminary discussion of it obviously.
But commercial use of exotic wildlife in exhibitions, this
is something that has been used in other jurisdictions.
A lot of jurisdictions across the country.
An effort to try to prevent circuses
that were using animals and wildlife cruelly.
These are still animal cruelty.
But in the stationary business.
It's requires regulatory oversight.
The other one that I would like to discuss or find out
if there's options to be able to address
are the public contact encounters.
There's no reason for a wild animal that came directly
out of the top of a forest in Kiana
to be handled by a class of sixth graders.
We know that humans can get diseases from wild animals.
We know that humans give diseases to wild animals.
And we understand that what makes them wild
is that they stay in the wild.
So the importance of that as a business model,
not talking about education.
We're not talking about specifically exemptions
that we can see for truly accredited educational purposes,
this is about entertainment for profit.
One of the things we would do is of course
maintain exemptions for accredited institutions.
So zoning approach common this is all very preliminary.
I know we are, we have an incredible team
in our zoning division.
I have said this a million times and I'll say it again.
I believe our code compliance officers are unsung heroes
for being out there in the world with their badge and a notebook
and they don't necessarily have all the tools
to be able to intervene when something this, I
think catastrophic happens in a location that
wasn't permitted to be used.
Omitted permit and use tables potentially creating definition
for something that may be prohibited
and then non-conforming status for existing,
if they do fall out of that education exemption.
And then the other avenue might be business licensing.
The idea that we didn't know what
was going on in this business, in this location.
Because they didn't come in and tell us.
This was a bad actor and they didn't
disclose what they were going to be using that space for a.
Well, you don't come potentially if the applicant name
is sloth world, you know, is there a mechanism by which we
can require a zoning clearance before the issuance
of a business license?
Is there the ability to have some kind of code of compliance?
Any alert system if you will.
One of the most devastating photographs
that came out of these last few months
was a picture of our code enforcement officers
that they took, of empty crates or maybe
it was somebody at FWC, of empty crates
outside the warehouse, that indicated
there may be animals inside.
Having those kinds of indicators,
would there be an opportunity for a better enforcement
activity?
And then administrative enforcement
looks like fees and fines.
The idea of being held to some de minimis fee
after killing dozens of beautiful animals
that were brought here without having any recourse
is a huge problem.
If somebody is using something and they're not
zoned to be using that then we need
to look at if there's an opportunity to have something
more enforceable and then as a background,
I don't want to get too far in the weeds
but there are jurisdictions all over the country and some
in the state that do limited restriction of public contact.
And some of those, like zoning regulations and zoning
ordinances and some of them are specific to specific species.
I would request we do something for wildlife that
could include the species that are listed in some
of these other jurisdictions.
But of course this loss of which we understand
have a unique sensitivity.
And this leads me to why this loss needs specifically
needs special protection.
These animals are a wild animal that actually responds
to stressors by shutting down.
Their entire metabolism shuts down when they are stressed.
Cold stress stops their digestive system.
Handling can affect their entire bodily functions and they are
susceptible to so much of the environmental concerns that
happen in a handling --
commercial handling business.
Of some tourists believe that handling them shows love,
just know that if they're holding their hands up,
that's because they're scared.
I really believe the people who bought tickets ahead of time
and wanted to come to sloths world
commonly love these animals.
It wasn't because they were bad actors or they had malintent.
I think the reason why they did that is because maybe they
didn't understand.
So I do believe that educational opportunities exist,
but sloths in particular are a sensitive species
that need special protection.
The issue with the wild capture, once again,
I think we have to continue to advocate.
So it's important to know when they are pulled out
of the woods, a captive breeding program,
that you're pulling adults that may
be right in the middle of reproduction.
You're interrupting their reproduction cycle.
That is taking a toll on the overall mortality
period we understand transport is deadly for them.
Very few actually arrive when there is a transport.
Those impacts aren't even contemplated today.
It's important to understand.
Here's a list of possible exemptions.
Of course we have our accredited agencies.
Such as the great people that took in our surviving
sloths from sloths world.
And then of course licensed wildlife rehabilitations,
certified veterinary care, it's a different certification
for this type of wildlife and the person that
was listed on the FWC application
for the permit for sloth world was not the kind of veterinarian
that needed to be hired.
And then of course for the educational institutions,
they need to be able to do the outreach that would potentially
include something, that could have a exhibit that
wouldn't be disqualified.
And then of course some conservation organization.
And import distinction between some
of the educational conservation and need for those programs.
And commercial entertainment.
Sloth world, was an example of something
that was being put into place specifically
for commercial entertainment.
It was for tickets.
Much like an exhibition on anything.
The idea that these beings didn't get any specialized
treatment for being special is a little terrifying
and as an oversight body, we need
to find opportunities to address that.
If this board feels like this is a worthwhile endeavor,
we will seek guidance from our county
Attorney's office to review our state exemptions.
And constitutional issues including
some of the grandfathering of existing businesses.
I don't know of any right now.
I don't think it hurts to say that we're not penalizing
good actors out there.
We're trying to make sure we're preventing another tragedy.
Public benefits, I think everything we do here
should be able to be justified by saying how
this is making a difference.
First of all, animal welfare is a great concern
to almost everybody that I know and for people
who don't believe they are animal welfare advocates,
they oftentimes understand the public safety issue
and we have a potential business that
doesn't care about the lives of the animals that are there.
That means they don't really care
about the lives of the visitors either.
They are subjecting everybody to potential safety issues.
Responsible tourism is what our brand is.
We are a welcoming home a family friendly,
forward facing county and region.
And we want to make sure that people come here
with the knowledge that they are going
to visit a place that takes really good care of its people
and its wildlife.
And then of course regulatory clarity.
There is an unbelievable, I felt when
I was reading through all the documents in this case that,
how did we not stop this?
There's just a blind spot at almost every level
that allowed it.
The timeline, I know there's no magic wand
and I am a patient commissioner.
As long as I have support on why our board and staff and try
to make sure we're trying to do something that has meaning.
It's not just for show.
We want to make sure we include the public.
That's its own process.
This is sort of the final piece.
Asking for support.
Asking questions of the county Attorney's office
at how this might look and then potentially seeing
if we can return to put something
in place that will assure residents for years
to come that we don't allow this type of cruelty
in Orange County.
That's at.
>> Thank you Commissioner Wilson.
We'll go to the board for questions, comments.
Commissioner Uribe.
>> First of all thank you for doing so much research on this.
This has been phenomenal.
I think we all agree.
We know no animal, no anybody should suffer.
I will say a couple of things that I worry about.
And Jennifer is here.
Of course we all remember the tragedy of the fireworks
in the warehouse that blew up and all of those young people
died.
They weren't supposed to have fireworks in a building.
And so it leaves me to -- how do we make sure we are vigilant.
Clearly multiple people new fireworks were going on there.
There's companies locally that we're getting fireworks
through their.
And the company never had a business license.
100%, we need to put some regulations in there.
We need to see what that looks like.
I just hope we can also have a mechanism where
we continue to tell people, if you see something,
say something.
Because, all of these tragedies, obviously people involved new,
but no one bothered to say anything until it basically
all came about.
The only other question I have is,
one, like this particular one was in the city,
is it required to have a county business license if it
has a city business license?
>> It's a great question.
We've talked about this.
That sloth world storefront was in the city of Orlando,
but the warehouse was in the county.
And knowing that we have great partnerships with the city,
also you know, talking through this as part of the stakeholder
portion of discussions, having some understanding of what they
would want to participate in as maybe collaborating
for something that has consistency
across jurisdictions.
>> I don't know if we currently have any zoning that would allow
exotic wildlife to be permitted currently in Orange County.
Do we?
Or do we just not talk about it, is it not listed?
Do we have any exotic wildlife zoning in Orange County,
right now?
>> It's not specifically exempted.
>> So, Commissioner, let me refer to my notes.
I believe it was in 2015 ish.
We used to have a category for exotic animals in our use table
and we took it out altogether and I
think it's because we just defer to the state
because they're the ones that ultimately regulate them.
We don't currently have anything.
There's no permission or prohibition.
>> My follow up question would be,
and maybe this is for Georgina, if we do some co compliance,
can we put some teeth in it.
There was a verbal discussion, but could there
be kind of like the health department
on restaurants, where we shut it down?
I mean, do we have the ability to do something
when there's a clear violation?
>> I think what we're going to do,
we're listening to discussion today, (indiscernible).
As it relates to wild exotic life.
Consistent with our charter, our office
is always saying you guys have the powers that are given to you
or that are not consistent with state or general law.
F powers are in the Constitution.
They have the regulatory power.
It's going to be difficult for us to step in and make
some sort of regulatory decisions related
to the importing or licensing.
So we're going to have to stay with our local powers.
Which is in land use.
We're going to have to do a little listening
to the discussion today.
But we need to know if there's interest in consensus.
We have to do that research and come back and either explain
how the process works, because there's also different levels
that the state gets.
Class one, class two, class three.
Unfortunately are not 1 or 2.
That is another fact that is a unique situation.
We do get notice from the state on class one
or class two I think.
>> If it was a gator we would have gotten notice.
>> We'll have to do that research and come back
and figure out where the board consensus lies or what
you're able -- >> I would support the most intensive
opportunity for us as a county to do.
And secondly I always comment my concern is always enforcement.
Whatever your findings do accomplish
of what we're capable of as a body and a government to do,
but again, how is that enforcement
able to be reassured.
>> I think giving you the clearer picture,
you started saying this is an actor who did not get
the business license.
We need to bring the information to you
about how it's supposed to work so
that it would have triggered an inspection by the fire Marshal.
But as you noted, at the very beginning,
this was an actor who didn't do what they were supposed to do.
It wasn't on what they called high alert for explosives.
We had fireworks.
All right.
Will.
Hopefully you guys can find everything you can.
I think this is a great effort to do.
We should move forward.
I agree.
>> Thank you commissioner Uribe.
Commissioner Cordero or commissioner Scott?
>> I have to say thank you for this.
This process and research.
>> I'm in full support.
>> Thank you.
I am too.
District five.
You need to double down you didn't need
to convince me on anything.
What I do also want to draw attention to
is we talk about establishing some form
of regulatory framework.
One of the things we need to consider
is how we actually do and I'll go back to the topic of TT
because visit Orlando, despite laws already having died,
spent our public money on advertisements
for sloths world, which resulted in some of those advanced sales.
Had this been just a one off, where it only happened once,
with one animal organization, but it hasn't.
It actually also happened in 2024.
With Wild Florida as well.
Where we had the use of our TT funds
being spent on an animal organization
that had animal welfare.
Accusations and cases against it.
And I think we owe our constituents and taxpayers
the due diligence to make sure that with our public money
we are not promoting one of the most grotesque crimes that
is severely under punished in our justice system.
I do think we need to move towards some type of oversight
with regard to how that money is spent.
That's aside from it.
I think this report, district five
will submit something with regard to that.
And I also fully support you, Commissioner Wilson.
>> Thank you so much.
So, just making sure, are there any --
>> Honestly, it would be a great holiday gift for us to present
Orange County, to say that we're never going to allow something
like this to happen again.
I just want to make sure, for clarification purposes,
the FWC wildlife permits are for that captive import.
But what we're looking at is the regulatory schemes
that we already work under.
Which are our land use, zoning, business license.
Not the import.
>> Yes.
The way the language is, they have all.
We have to figure out what that means.
>> I think there's a lot of other jurisdictions.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Have a good lunch.
>> Thank you.
Happy lunch.
See you at two.