Okaloosa County BOCC — March 3, 2015 — Jan 27, 2015 County Priorities Development Workshop — reading text

Affairs for the School Board, an opportunity to address the Board. Mr. Kelly stated Okaloosa County schools rank high in the nation and has three high schools ranked in the top 75. He said the schools promote a relationship with the economic and business communities. Mr. Kelly said he is working with Jim Trifilio, Coastal Management Coordinator, on a grant which would provide opportunities for high school students to conduct oceanographic research. Continuing, he stated many people do not know about some of the programs offered at the county’s high schools. He spoke about the partnership between the Florida State University Medical School and Crestview High School to provide an internship program, Microsoft program at Niceville High School, and the Embry Riddle engineering program at Choctawhatchee High School. He concluded by saying this school district has great involvement of businesses 1in the schools. Item 2B: Mr. Harman spoke on preparing the airport through an infrastructure development strategy and continuing to work with EDC on an enhanced marketing campaign for major aerospace venues. He stated the industry has begun to guestion the reliability of maintenance activities overseas and believes there is an effort to move maintenance and repair activities back to this country. January 27, 2015 -6~ Minute Bock 72, Page 131 Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners Upon inquiry by Mr. Boyles, Mr. Harman replied that marketing campaign is set to roll out this Fall. Mr. Sparks stated he is optimistic. He referred to the earlier comments about the Gulf Power site certification program and said they are waiting for signoff by the Corps of Engineers on a wetlands assessment. Mr. Sparks stressed that Gulf Power Company is a very capable and willing partner. He said Gulf Power will promote these certified industrial sites on its website. Item 2C: Mr. Sparks referred to the industrial development which has occurred in Mossy Head adjacent to I-10, saying this is an example of being able to win businesses with infrastructure. He said possible sites are Shoal River Ranch and the Holt Industrial Park, noting their proximity to the interstate, Highway 90, and railroad. Mr. Boyles stated it is a matter of relating the infrastructure to the inventory of assets and how to leverage them. Mr. Littrell said there is a county-sponsored industrial park within the Holt Community Water System service area which does not have sewer service. He stated if real industrial development 1is to take place, someone must be able to provide sewer to this area. RECESS - The workshop was recessed at 11:58 a.m. and reconvened at 12:30 p.m. Item 3A: Mr. Hofstad said he wants to know what the Board would like to see in the budget documents this year. He noted that he did receive some feedback about the performance based budget and looking at the entire county budget in order to get the “big picture.” Mr. Hofstad stressed that he is not proposing to go to a line item budget. He said a consideration is for a modified zero based budget. Mr. Harris stated he is an advocate of zero based budget, noting the current budget is nice but does not give enough details to make a decision on it. He felt some type modification would be good. Mr. Windes agreed with Mr. Harris, saying he likes the idea of a hybrid. Mrs. Ketchel said she could go along with that. Mr. January 27, 2015 -7- Minute Book 72, Page 132 Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners Goodwin was supportive of anything to increase transparency and accountability for the taxpayers. Mr. Boyles said the Board should adopt the style budget it wants and recommended options be presented as quickly as possible. Mr. Peacock stated the budget is presented as a static document but in realty the numbers change throughout the vyear. He said the Clerk’'s Office uses a robust financial software package. Mr. Peacock said by putting everything into the dashboard, you would be able to see how effective your budget is. He advised that he would like to look into business intelligence for the dashboard to provide information on how we expect the budget to do and compare it against how we are really doing. Mr. Peacock pointed out that government is slower than the business world and he would 1like to talk with the Board about business intelligence solutions, software that will see the trends over time and 1is user friendly. He said the data could then be compared with educated guesses during budget preparation. Mr. Boyles said he has found if someone had a problem with an expenditure that it was not necessarily because it was not a good budget but lack of communication in expending the dollars. He noted the budget is a dense document to understand and the technicalities are not easily translated for the average citizen. Mr. Peacock stated perception tends to drive what we are doing rather than reality. Mr. Boyles asked Mr. Peacock if his office can take the lead on this. Mr. Peacock replied his office has data and software the county departments work in and he has found a couple of solutions which are add-ons to these programs. He said he will be vetting these over the next few months and will bring back a report on what the business analytics could do for us. Mr. Boyles said he would like to see a priority development workshop be made a part of the pre-budget process each year. Item 3B: Mr. Boyles said this item is to complete a comprehensive review of the Code of Ordinances and Land Development Code (LDC). He stated the changes would be to simplify and modernize the documents. January 27, 2015 -8- Minute Book 72, Page 133 Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners Mr. Kampert stated this will take time, saying there are a number of things in the LDC from old ordinances. He said the needs should be technically and legally correct and reflect the needs of the community. Mr. Boyles said the redundancies in the LDC and Code of Ordinances should be identified and taken out. He stated a list of policy issues should be created and reviewed. Mr. Kampert responded, saying it will take time to read line-by- line through development requirements and concurrency issues. Ms. Hoshihara stated this task is achievable and said initially we should flag those items we can “clean up.” Then, she said we can get more in depth and look at policies. Ms. Hoshihara stated it will Dbe necessary to get input from various departments. Mrs. Ketchel asked if it will take the law firm, working with staff, more than a year to do this. Mr. Boyles answered the non-policy changes could probably be done within the year. Ms. Hoshihara concurred. Mrs. Ketchel recommended money be put in the budget for this work. Mr. Boyles replied that is a good idea and he will get an estimate on those costs from Mr. Stewart. Mr. Kampert stated this evaluation should not stop things from moving forward. Mr. Boyles pointed out we don’'t want to back- burner this. Mr. Goodwin commented technical review at staff and contractor level makes since. Item 3C: Human Resources Director Kay Godwin stated the fraud policy was updated last vyear. The current policy outlines the reporting process. Mrs. Godwin also noted citizens can go to the website and report suspected fraud anonymously but it is via email. She said a few vyears ago efforts were begun with the Constitutional Officers to make reporting of suspected fraud a one-stop process. Mrs. Godwin reported the county and all Constitutional Officers have a Whistle Blower Policy. Mr. Boyles stated he does not believe we have a problem in the county today. He said issues may arise and we need to make sure we look out for our blind spots. January 27, 2015 -9- Minute Book 72, Page 134 Okalocosa County Board of County Commissioners Mr. Harris said he thinks the anonymity of reporting is great but does not want it to be used as a tool, explaining someone might do a report just because they were angry or had been fired. He said there is no need to start an investigation if there is nothing to support it. Mr. Goodwin said there is protection for whistle blowers and the investigation should be taken out of public view. Mrs. Godwin replied that generally if an investigation is ongoing, it 1is exempt from the public record. Mr. Goodwin addressed maliciocus reporting and cautioned against any comments until a determination of validity is made. Ms. Hoshihara stated these are valid concerns—protection of the person filing a complaint and evasion by anonymity of a malicious report. She stated alleged reports will be exempt from public disclosure. Mr. Peacock stated multiple avenues for reporting is a good thing. He spoke briefly on establishing an Inspector General position in his office to look at fraud and abuse of county resources. Mr. Peacock stated the office will be professional, accredited and will have peer review. He said it is important to catch problems when they are still correctible. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 1:12 p.m. J. D. PEACOCK IT NATHAN D. BOYLES, CHAIRMAN CLERK OF CIRCUIT COURT BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS (These minutes were transcribed by Teresa Ward.) January 27, 2015 -10- Minute Book 72, Page 135 Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners