The Governor and Cabinet - Florida Department of State

THE CABINET

STATE OF FLORIDA

_____________________________________________________

The following agencies came to be heard before
THE FLORIDA CABINET, Honorable Governor Bush presiding,
in the Cabinet Meeting Room, LL-03, The Capitol,
Tallahassee, Florida, on Tuesday, November 26, 2002
commencing at approximately 9:30 a.m.

DIVISION OF BOND FINANCE
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT
DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAY SAFETY AND MOTOR VEHICLES
DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
LAND AND WATER ADJUDICATORY COMMISSION
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION

Reported by:

SANDRA L. NARGIZ

Registered Professional Reporter
Registered Merit Reporter
Certified Realtime Reporter

ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
100 SALEM COURT
TALLAHASSEE, FL 32301 (850)878-2221

APPEARANCES:

Representing the Florida Cabinet:

JEB BUSH
Governor

JIM SMITH
Secretary of State

ROBERT F. MILLIGAN
Comptroller

CHARLES H. BRONSON
Commissioner of Agriculture

RICHARD DORAN
Attorney General

CHARLIE CRIST
Commissioner of Education

TOM GALLAGHER
Treasurer

* * *

I N D E X

DIVISION OF BOND FINANCE
(Presented by J. Ben Watkins, III)

ITEM ACTION PAGE

1 Approved 5
2 Approved 5
3 Approved 5
4 Approved 6
5 Approved 6
6 Approved 7
7 Approved 7
8 Approved 7

FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT
(Presented by James T. Moore)
ITEM ACTION PAGE

1 Approved 9
2 Approved 9

DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAY SAFETY AND MOTOR VEHICLES
(Presented by Fred O. Dickinson)
ITEM ACTION PAGE

1 Approved 15

DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE
(Presented by James Zingale)
ITEM ACTION PAGE

1 Approved 19
2 Approved 19
3 Approved 38
4 Approved 43
5 Approved 45

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
(Presented by Robin Safley)
ITEM ACTION PAGE

1 Approved 49
2 Approved 65
3 Withdrawn 66
4 Approved 66
5 Approved 66

LAND AND WATER ADJUDICATORY COMMISSION

ITEM ACTION PAGE
Meeting Deferred 92

BOARD OF TRUSTEES
(Presented by David B. Struhs)
ITEM ACTION PAGE

1 Approved 105
2 Approved 105
3 Approved 107
4 Approved 108
5 Approved 108
6 Approved 108
7 Approved 108
8 Approved 109
9 Withdrawn 109
10 Approved 145
11 Deferred 145

STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
(Presented by Coleman Stipanovich)
ITEM ACTION PAGE

1 Approved 146
2 Approved 146
3 Approved 146
4 Approved 147

CERTIFICATE OF REPORTER 148

1 P R O C E E D I N G S

2 (The agenda items commenced at 9:30 a.m.)

3 GOVERNOR BUSH: The next Cabinet meeting will

4 be held Wednesday, December 11, 2002.

5 Division of Bond Finance.

6 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion.

7 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Second.

8 GOVERNOR BUSH: Item 1 is moved and seconded.

9 Without objection.

10 MR. WATKINS: Item 2 is a resolution

11 authorizing the issuance and competitive sale of

12 up to $7 million in Housing Refunding Bonds for

13 Florida A&M University.

14 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion on 2.

15 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Second.

16 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without

17 objection, the item passes.

18 MR. WATKINS: Item number 3 is a resolution

19 authorizing the issuance and competitive sale of

20 up to 17 and a half million dollars of Housing

21 Revenue Refunding Bonds for the University of

22 Central Florida.

23 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion.

24 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Second.

25 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without
6

1 objection, the item passes.

2 MR. WATKINS: Item 4 is a resolution

3 authorizing the issuance and competitive sale of

4 up to six and a half million dollars in parking

5 Facility Refunding Bonds for Florida State

6 University.

7 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Motion.

8 SECRETARY SMITH: Second.

9 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without

10 objection, the item passes.

11 MR. WATKINS: Item number 5 is a report of

12 award on the competitive sale of $8,995,000 in

13 Florida Atlantic University Parking Facility

14 Revenue Bonds. The bonds were awarded to the low

15 bidder at a true interest cost of 3.94 percent.

16 SECRETARY SMITH: Motion.

17 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Second.

18 GOVERNOR BUSH: 3.94?

19 MR. WATKINS: Yes, sir.

20 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without

21 objection, the item passes.

22 TREASURER GALLAGHER: It says 3.938, but

23 that's okay.

24 GOVERNOR BUSH: Thank you.

25 MR. WATKINS: Item number 6 is a report of
7

1 award on the competitive sale of $150 million of

2 Florida Forever Revenue bonds for the Department

3 of Environmental Protection. The bonds were

4 awarded to the low bidder at a true interest cost

5 of 4.57 percent.

6 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Motion.

7 SECRETARY SMITH: Second.

8 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without

9 objection, the item passes.

10 MR. WATKINS: Item number 7 is a report of

11 award on the competitive sale of $250 million of

12 PECO bonds. The bonds were awarded to the low

13 bidder at a true interest cost of 4.73 percent.

14 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Motion on 7.

15 SECRETARY SMITH: Second.

16 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without

17 objection, the item passes.

18 MR. WATKINS: Item number 8 is a report of

19 award on the competitive sale of $22,915,000,000

20 of Parking Facility Revenue Bonds for Florida

21 International University. The bonds were awarded

22 to the low bidder at a true interest cost of

23 4.12 percent.

24 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Move.

25 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without
8

1 objection, the item passes.

2 Happy Thanksgiving.

3 MR. WATKINS: Thank you.

25
9

1 GOVERNOR BUSH: Florida Department of Law

2 Enforcement.

3 MR. MOORE: Good morning, Governor and

4 Cabinet. Let me say before launching into the

5 agenda, let me say thanks to you for taking time

6 to recognize Rich and Marci. I am very proud of

7 them and I am proud of the 300 plus agents across

8 the state that Rich represents, and 300 plus

9 scientists that Marci represents who we rely on

10 and who local law enforcement in this state relies

11 on a great deal. Thank you for taking for time to

12 recognize their efforts.

13 Item 1, Governor, is the minutes.

14 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Move.

15 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Second.

16 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without

17 objection, the item passes.

18 MR. MOORE: Item 2 is the first quarterly

19 report for fiscal 2002-2003, and you have a copy

20 of that report in your folder.

21 SECRETARY SMITH: Motion.

22 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Second.

23 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without

24 objection, the item passes.

25 MR. MOORE: Governor, that concludes the
10

1 agenda. If I could, could I make a couple of

2 comments about some of the things in the quarterly

3 report that you and the Cabinet have been very

4 supportive of in the way of progress?

5 GOVERNOR BUSH: Absolutely.

6 MR. MOORE: During this reporting period we

7 continued work on over 2900 criminal

8 investigations across the state. And as Rich said

9 in his remarks, those investigations we do not do

10 in a vacuum; we do with local law enforcement, we

11 do, Commissioner Bronson, with your folks, we do

12 the same, Treasurer Gallagher, with yours.

13 And I am proud of that effort and that

14 activity.

15 While our overall case closings are down a

16 bit, there is good reason for that. We are

17 continuing to fully implement our domestic

18 security initiative across the state. We are

19 finding our baseline there, and we are seeing

20 our caseload go back to where it should go.

21 And we are also scrutinizing and scrubbing the

22 level of cases that we work.

23 The value that we bring to policing in the

24 investigative sense in Florida is by filling

25 some of the void. We are not doing our job if
11

1 we are duplicating the good job that our 40,000

2 plus local law enforcement officers do. So we

3 are constantly going and examining the cases we

4 have opened and closing those that aren't

5 meeting our threshold in our investigative

6 strategy.

7 I will mention as well, talking of DNA,

8 that we are within our standards for the first

9 time in I don't know how long. And I am proud

10 of that. And that's because of the new

11 scientists, Governor, you helped us get in

12 previous sessions; they are on board now, and

13 they are producing the kinds of results that we

14 hoped for.

15 Our turnaround time in DNA is down

16 30 percent since July of this year. At the

17 same time our submissions for DNA services went

18 up over 15 percent.

19 We are receiving over 80 percent of our

20 fingerprint, arrest fingerprint submissions,

21 some 900,000 in a year, we are receiving over

22 80 percent of them now electronically, where no

23 one's ink touches no one's fingers; they put it

24 on the scan and it comes up as automatically

25 appended to our file in terms of the
12

1 particulars of the arrest incident, at the same

2 time positive identifications are made. I am

3 real proud of that effort.

4 I am also proud of Scotty Sanderson and

5 what they have done with Capitol Police. Yes,

6 we have more to do, but you can see around the

7 exterior of this building how we have been able

8 to put up some controls that in no way impedes

9 upon the public's access to this building.

10 And Governor, on Operation Safe Kids, as

11 we briefed out yesterday, we are making

12 progress there too. And when we conclude that

13 on December 2nd we'll report the final

14 findings.

15 And we are able to do this at the same

16 time we continue to help coordinate -- I

17 emphasis those two words -- help coordinate

18 Florida's domestic security effort with every

19 one of you on the Cabinet and all the agencies

20 in state government; the whole enterprise of

21 domestic security and homeland security down

22 through and most especially including local

23 government has put Florida in a leadership

24 position.

25 With the Governor's strong leadership we
13

1 have been able to leverage in excess of a

2 hundred million federal dollars into Florida to

3 help us across our the entirety of our domestic

4 security initiative and I am proud of that.

5 And I hope there is more to come, now that we

6 have the new department and appropriations

7 process will free up some of the precedence on

8 those three recommendations. So with that,

9 Governor, thank you for allowing me to make

10 those comments.

11 GOVERNOR BUSH: Any questions or comments?

12 Tim, how many -- with the change in the

13 law I guess two years ago now or 18 months ago,

14 how many DNA samples do you keep, records do

15 you keep?

16 MR. MOORE: We are approaching 200,000 in our

17 database now. If you recall, we had a policy

18 position that you supported in advance of the

19 legislature and they put it in law that said

20 within five years of the 2000 legislative session,

21 we would have all convicted felons in our DNA

22 database in Florida.

23 That was the smart way to go about that.

24 Instead of just dumping everything at one time

25 and bringing us to our knees, we did it
14

1 incrementally.

2 We started with burglary, if you recall,

3 after the violent crimes of rape, robbery

4 murder, the we added burglary.

5 Next we are in process this year of adding

6 armed robbery and we'll move on up through the

7 remainder of the felony crimes in Florida by

8 2005.

9 But we are approaching 200,000 in our

10 database now, and Florida has the most

11 effective -- not the largest, but the most

12 effective DNA database in America in terms of

13 linking investigations and solving crimes.

14 GOVERNOR BUSH: Proud of what you all do.

15 MR. MOORE: Thank you, sir. Thanks for your

16 help, your support and leadership.

25
15

1 GOVERNOR BUSH: Department of Highway Safety

2 and Motor Vehicles.

3 MR. DICKINSON: Governor item 1 is submission

4 of our legislative budget request that was

5 deferred from our last Cabinet meeting. We have

6 halved our percentage increase request down to

7 below 3 percent.

8 GOVERNOR BUSH: Is there a motion?

9 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion on 1.

10 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Second.

11 GOVERNOR BUSH: There is a motion and a

12 second. I am abstaining from voting on the budget

13 in order to make my own budget recommendations in

14 January.

15 The item passes with one abstention.

16 Thank you, Fred.

17 MR. DICKINSON: Thank you, Governor.

18 Also, if I may, I would like to point out,

19 since you did mention this is the holiday

20 season; in an effort to save lives and reduce

21 serious injuries, we have joined with the 330

22 local agencies throughout Florida and worked

23 together on a Click-It-and-Ticket Campaign

24 that's just concluded.

25 And during the nine days of this
16

1 intensified enforcement effort, our sheriffs'

2 deputies, police officers and highway patrolmen

3 wrote over 38,000 seat belt violation and child

4 restraint citations, at the same time Florida

5 Department of Transportation spearheaded an

6 extensive advertising campaign to raise

7 awareness. Seat belt usage is up over 75

8 percent in Florida for the first time and

9 that's above the national average, so we are

10 applauded on that.

11 Also, that's about a million more belted

12 drivers on our highways, which is encouraging,

13 and we bring this to your attention.

14 Obviously --

15 GOVERNOR BUSH: That is a year-to-year

16 increase? We weren't above the national average

17 last year?

18 MR. DICKINSON: No, sir, we weren't. In

19 fact, we take that view of it right after the nine

20 days' intensive effort, the DOT comes in and does

21 their surveys right then, but that's transmitted

22 to Washington for all their statistical stuff.

23 That is not one year; that's a snapshot of -- it

24 shows what that effort can do.

25 I know you have been supportive of primary
17

1 seat belt, and that's something we'll shoot for

2 again. I don't know what our legislative

3 leaders will say.

4 GOVERNOR BUSH: We got a whole new group, so

5 hope --

6 MR. DICKINSON: Yes, sir. We do have a

7 holiday period before us starting tomorrow, and I

8 know Tim always briefs you on this.

9 Our troopers, all of our brass will be out

10 of the office and on the highways. And if you

11 will notice, the unfortunate slaying of that

12 TPD officer last week, we handled all the

13 traffic for the funeral.

14 And what we typically do as you will see

15 whenever Tim asks us to help up here with

16 Capital detail, we use all captains and above

17 so as not to take anybody off the road.

18 But we put everybody back on the highways

19 for this holiday season. We are anticipating

20 about 40 deaths over the next four days, and we

21 hope we are dead wrong.

22 GOVERNOR BUSH: We'll see a bunch of big

23 brass at the inauguration out on Monroe?

24 MR. DICKINSON: Only brass in unmarked cars,

25 but more importantly they will be on the highways
18

1 this weekend. So we are trying to raise that

2 awareness level. Thank you.

3 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Is the director working

4 the highway too?

5 MR. DICKINSON: The director will be in the

6 Tampa area, and I will be out riding; we are going

7 to start a 6:00 a.m. shift in the morning. If

8 anybody would like to join us --

9 TREASURER GALLAGHER: And we are invited to

10 join you?

11 GOVERNOR BUSH: That's a good push back.

12 TREASURER GALLAGHER: It worked on me, I can

13 tell you that.

14 GOVERNOR BUSH: You have our total admiration

15 and that's it.

25
19

1 GOVERNOR BUSH: Department of Revenue. I

2 hope you are not going to do an extra shift.

3 MR. ZINGALE: It's hard to follow Fred.

4 TREASURER GALLAGHER: You may need the extra

5 shift to see how much money they bring in.

6 GOVERNOR BUSH: That is true. Is there a

7 motion on the minutes?

8 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion on the minutes.

9 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Second.

10 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without

11 objection, the item passes. Item 2.

12 MR. ZINGALE: Item 2 is a $2.6 million

13 contract for genetic testing with LabCorp and

14 Orchid BioSciences. Request approval.

15 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion on 2.

16 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Second.

17 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without

18 objection, the item passes.

19 MR. ZINGALE: Item number 3 is the

20 department's legislative concepts for '03.

21 We have got 41 legislative concepts. I am

22 only going to highlight six. If you have any

23 questions on the others, I will be glad to

24 answer.

25 GOVERNOR BUSH: Is a concept different than
20

1 agenda or a --

2 TREASURER GALLAGHER: It's not a bill yet,

3 that's what that is.

4 MR. ZINGALE: Well, yeah, we give you the

5 concept; then we draft a bill; then we have got to

6 get a sponsor; and it's got to go in front of the

7 legislature. If it's controversial, like the ones

8 I am raising, we come back to you. If it's moving

9 in a different direction, then we explain.

10 GOVERNOR BUSH: I like this concept of

11 concepts.

12 TREASURER GALLAGHER: That's the way we work.

13 MR. ZINGALE: And the first one has been here

14 before, and it's likely to be here next year and

15 the following year. I am going to highlight in

16 child support the concept of full pass through. I

17 think we are aware that child support, if the

18 custodial parent is on public assistance, has the

19 child support payment intercepted, and the state

20 retains a substantial portion of it and the

21 federal government retains a substantial portion

22 of it.

23 In the last few years the federal

24 government has entertained the possibility of

25 allowing the full child support payment to pass
21

1 through to the child. It makes administration

2 of the tax law -- of this provision much more

3 streamline. It has a lot of family values in

4 that noncustodial parent is maintaining a

5 continuous relationship with that family on a

6 financial basis.

7 We put in here as a concept -- we don't

8 expect this to pass in this coming session --

9 has a substantial financial obligation tied to

10 it, in excess of $20 million. In the two to

11 three year horizon, if the federal government

12 comes through and accepts their portion of the

13 burden, the cost drops dramatically. And we

14 have some things in the long-term that will

15 generate some money that we hope will help pay

16 for this.

17 GOVERNOR BUSH: Is this part of the TANF

18 reauthorization in Washington?

19 MR. ZINGALE: Exactly.

20 TREASURER GALLAGHER: So what you are saying

21 right now is you have a noncustodial parent making

22 a payment, and there is a bunch of money taken out

23 of that before it gets to the mother and child?

24 MR. ZINGALE: If the mother and child are

25 currently on public assistance, none of the money
22

1 goes to the child.

2 TREASURER GALLAGHER: They get the public

3 assistance in lieu of the payments?

4 MR. ZINGALE: Yes, studies have shown that

5 this disruption -- while you remember public

6 assistance today is only 24 to 36 months, it's not

7 an 18-year obligation. And studies have shown

8 that the disruption of this payment from the

9 father in most cases to the child causes a

10 disconnect, and it's trying to maintain that

11 connection with the family.

12 TREASURER GALLAGHER: I agree.

13 MR. ZINGALE: Next one I would like to

14 highlight for our Insurance Commissioner, soon to

15 be Chief Financial Officer, is the insurance child

16 support intercept.

17 This would deal with workers' comp and

18 personal injury protection and a lot of the

19 other programs, like unemployment comp or IRS

20 payments; we have a direct match up and an

21 intercept program.

22 We are proposing in this legislation to do

23 that with workers' comp and personal injury

24 protection. There are some safeguards in case

25 the claim is needed for medical care or minimum
23

1 subsistence living, so there is a review

2 process built in that one.

3 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Let me mention, it's

4 good that you bring this to our attention because

5 the Governor's Commission is working on a major

6 work comp rewrite, and one of the things that I

7 think they are going to have in it, at least I

8 hope they do, is a uniform form that's filled out

9 for every single injury and a tracking of every

10 single injury by the department, by the division.

11 So statistical gathering won't be the

12 disaster it is today because we just -- the

13 companies don't give us what we need and don't

14 keep it in writing and everything else.

15 Everybody does it a different way.

16 So in our statistical gathering of each

17 injured worker's information we'll know their

18 name and Social Security, et cetera, so it

19 would be very easy for us to match dollars

20 owed. This is provided you get your law

21 changed and we get the worker's comp change

22 done.

23 So this is a good thing for us to have in

24 mind as we are creating the database that's

25 going to be holding all this information.
24

1 Thank you.

2 GOVERNOR BUSH: Do you have an estimation of

3 how much money --

4 MR. ZINGALE: Not at this stage. We do have

5 a workers' comp program, but it works through the

6 hearing officers, so we are getting partial

7 recoupment now. As Tom says, the databases today

8 don't allow us to match up very readily and see

9 what's on the other side.

10 But we think it's a major tool. It has

11 been in other states.

12 Unemployment comp tax recovery of indirect

13 costs, we do the tax. AWI does the claims. We

14 have a contract with AWI. There are some

15 limitations in the statutes that allow --

16 GOVERNOR BUSH: Can you remind me; how many

17 kids, how many children are receiving child

18 support or are supposed to be receiving child

19 support and what is the level of delinquency now?

20 MR. ZINGALE: The numbers that come to us is

21 approximately 900,000 children, and if you want to

22 put that in context --

23 GOVERNOR BUSH: I always wanted to make sure

24 what everybody remembers what this is.

25 MR. ZINGALE: That's a little less than one
25

1 in every four in the State of Florida, about

2 23 percent of every child in the State of Florida

3 under the age of 18 comes to us for child support

4 enforcement services.

5 GOVERNOR BUSH: And is it growing as the

6 population grows or is it --

7 MR. ZINGALE: It's stable.

8 GOVERNOR BUSH: So it's relatively --

9 MR. ZINGALE: It's relatively stable. Last

10 three years we have seen slight declines. This

11 last year, primarily because of the slowdown in

12 the economy, we have seen a slight increase.

13 GOVERNOR BUSH: On a relative basis, that's

14 actually a decrease.

15 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Percentage stable or

16 number stable?

17 MR. ZINGALE: Stable number.

18 GOVERNOR BUSH: But then how many of those

19 are cases where there is not collection?

20 MR. ZINGALE: If you separate it into two

21 pots, those that don't have an order yet, we have

22 approximately 56 percent of the cases with orders

23 and that's up from 42 percent just a few years

24 ago. And we are up to over 65 percent of those

25 with orders collected and that's substantially up
26

1 from the low 50s. Last year was a record year.

2 GOVERNOR BUSH: So the number of children

3 receiving support is 65 percent of 56 percent of

4 950,000?

5 MR. ZINGALE: That's right.

6 GOVERNOR BUSH: Which is less than half.

7 MR. ZINGALE: But part of that -- and this

8 comes in where the administrative provisions that

9 we talked about that we passed last year are so

10 important.

11 A lot of those children are trapped in the

12 256 days in the front end before you can get an

13 order. So we have a substantial portion of

14 those without orders that are in progress. And

15 we have a substantial churning that goes on on

16 the front end.

17 While they are on public assistance, they

18 have to come to us for service. The minute

19 they get off public assistance, they drop the

20 case.

21 We can never get those to order; so we

22 have got probably 25 percent down in there that

23 constantly churn. But we are up from 48 in the

24 nation to about 26; new computer kicking in,

25 administrative there, I firmly believe in four
27

1 years we'll be in the top five. That's not an

2 exaggeration.

3 GOVERNOR BUSH: I wanted to pause just to

4 point out the incredible challenge that typically

5 moms and their children face when the -- whatever

6 the legal, noncustodial, whatever it's called --

7 it's normally the dad -- doesn't make their

8 payments. It's hard.

9 And then we used to ask the Department of

10 HRS to do it and they did it bismally. It was

11 a complete disaster. Since Larry has taken it

12 over, the Department of Revenue has done an

13 extraordinary job. There is still a lot to do,

14 but --

15 TREASURER GALLAGHER: The clerks --

16 GOVERNOR BUSH: That still partially is. But

17 you have done a great job. It's a huge issue; we

18 don't give it enough attention. Too many families

19 struggle with this, and too many people are just

20 not meeting their obligations. It's a sad

21 commentary of modern life.

22 MR. ZINGALE: Just to push last year, not

23 only a record year in collections, but I think one

24 of the significant ones, the one you are

25 highlighting, is we went to 42,000 to order to
28

1 66,000 cases to order in one year. No new staff;

2 just management practices, working hard. We want

3 to get up to a hundred thousand.

4 GOVERNOR BUSH: The pilot program that had a

5 lot of resistance has been extraordinarily

6 successful.

7 MR. ZINGALE: Twice as many cases, and half

8 the time in the order. It is currently being

9 rolled out statewide, seven counties right now,

10 nine more in December. By March it will be rolled

11 out statewide; created in three months a central

12 site in Orlando to make sure that all the cases

13 are screened appropriately, to give due process,

14 to give the courts all the safeguards we think

15 they need to make sure this is constitutional.

16 GOVERNOR BUSH: You ought to try to get your

17 current PR team, communications office, to get

18 more information out about the reforms and the

19 results because I think it would help provide some

20 peace of mind and also maybe some -- the people

21 seeking the support that they deserve would have a

22 better understanding of how it works; because as

23 you know, I get a lot of e-mails on this subject

24 and there is a real confusion when you are in the

25 middle of the system, as someone struggling to try
29

1 to make your mortgage payment, and the

2 noncustodial parent hasn't made their child

3 support. Karen, by the way, does extraordinary

4 work.

5 MR. ZINGALE: Thank you. We love her to

6 death.

7 Electronic funds transfer; this is again

8 on the tax side. Well, I skipped one,

9 unemployment tax recovery of indirect costs.

10 In our contract that we have on the tax side

11 with AWI, we do the tax, they do the claims.

12 There is a provision in the statutes that

13 only allow you to recoup 5 percent of your

14 indirect costs.

15 The program is all federally funded and

16 that limitation last year cost us $2.2 million

17 in general revenue.

18 If we eliminate this indirect recovery

19 cap, it will give us $2.2 million general

20 revenue to play around with. And Donna knows

21 about it, so it's in the mix.

22 Electronic funds transfer, for someone

23 that pays by check and deliberately bounces the

24 check, there are penalties in the statute.

25 Someone that makes electronic funds, there are
30

1 no penalties for a bounced electronic funds

2 transfer with knowledge and a willful bouncing

3 of that transfer. It was part of moving that

4 threshold down to 30,000, so we are trying to

5 fix that little glitch in the statute.

6 GOVERNOR BUSH: How can you electronically

7 transfer --

8 TREASURER GALLAGHER: How does it bounce?

9 MR. ZINGALE: Your CPA sends it; there is no

10 money there on the other side to cover it or is

11 insufficient to cover it.

12 GOVERNOR BUSH: How does the bank transfer

13 money?

14 MR. ZINGALE: The bank isn't transferring it;

15 it's the CPAs that are doing the transfer.

16 GOVERNOR BUSH: Out of what?

17 TREASURER GALLAGHER: They are sending notice

18 to you that it's being electronically transferred;

19 but the electronic transfer doesn't take place.

20 MR. ZINGALE: The boss says that's right.

21 GOVERNOR BUSH: Because I hope banks aren't

22 transferring money out of bank accounts they don't

23 have. Not under General Milligan would that

24 happen.

25 MR. ZINGALE: The last two we are going to
31

1 highlight, one is exceedingly controversial. This

2 is in the ad valorem area.

3 Annually the Department of Revenue, as

4 part of its role approval process, comes up

5 with ratios for the 67 counties. Those ratios

6 can range from nothing lower than 90 percent to

7 sometimes slightly over a hundred percent.

8 We certify these to the Department of

9 Education and the Department of Education

10 adjusts millages annually. For those that are

11 at the high end of the range, they lower the

12 FEPF millage. If they are on the low end of

13 the range, they raise the FEPF millage rate.

14 Sounds like a good concept.

15 A number of states have done this for

16 years. What you see though is we are using

17 statistics and probability to arrive at those

18 ratios. From year to year you see some

19 substantial variations; a county can go from

20 98 percent to 96 percent; a lot of volatility

21 from year to year from the taxing authority to

22 see how this millage bounces around.

23 In other states, particularly Texas that

24 has done this for a number of years, a lot of

25 lawsuits come up with a lot of challenging.
32

1 When the statute is asking us to only be

2 accurate within a plus or minus 5 percent

3 range, you can see challenges in the court

4 coming down and saying: My 98 isn't

5 statistically different from your 93.

6 This is a concept that you will see run

7 through the FEFP funding formula and having

8 done that for a living in previous life a lot

9 of the interest in that will depend upon how

10 individual counties fall.

11 We are just throwing that out as a concept

12 up there. We had a lot of interest in cleaning

13 this up. I would have a hard time standing up

14 in front of a court and justifying a 98 percent

15 ratio versus a 93 percent ratio, when

16 statistically it's only 95 percent confident.

17 It's something that, if it starts to move,

18 we'll come back to you and explain what's going

19 on. But you will hear from this one as we go

20 through the cycle.

21 GOVERNOR BUSH: If you have to come and

22 explain it to us, at least one of the members of

23 the Governor and Cabinet would prefer it be done

24 in English.

25 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Would you go through
33

1 this again? Exactly -- I know what happens now.

2 I want to know what you are planning to do.

3 MR. ZINGALE: The level that the legislature

4 certified the rate, the required local effort that

5 is certified will be charged in all 67 counties.

6 TREASURER GALLAGHER: But the legislature

7 does do that rate now, but it is adjusted by the

8 department?

9 MR. ZINGALE: It is adjusted by me, a

10 nonelected official that is adjusting millages for

11 67 taxing authorities.

12 TREASURER GALLAGHER: I thought the

13 Department of Education is involved.

14 MR. ZINGALE: I certify it, but all they do

15 is take the numbers and adjust the millage.

16 TREASURER GALLAGHER: And so what you are not

17 going to do is make adjustments any more?

18 MR. ZINGALE: Not adjustments. If the

19 legislature says it's 6.4 mills, it's 6.4 mills

20 for everybody.

21 TREASURER GALLAGHER: You see, one of the

22 good things about the way it exists is it puts

23 pressure on the local tax assessor to be more

24 accurate in his assessments and you are removing

25 that pressure.
34

1 MR. ZINGALE: Where you will see interest in

2 not doing this, it will come from the counties, it

3 will come from the cities. They will make that

4 argument, that it puts pressure on them.

5 I counter that with saying the department

6 is putting substantially more pressure on

7 property appraisers than it had three years ago

8 in terms of doing their job according to their

9 constitutional responsibility.

10 I don't see this as providing any

11 additional incentive on them. They do the best

12 job they know how. We try to help them get

13 better.

14 I had not seen that pressure come to bear

15 in terms of what they are doing. But if this

16 starts moving, we'll come back and brief the

17 state Cabinet aides and tell them what's going

18 on. It's a major issue if we are going to

19 avoid in the long run some large lawsuits.

20 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Now is this adjustment

21 in the law now?

22 MR. ZINGALE: Yes.

23 The last one is to try to help some

24 homeowners out there.

25 Under the Save Our Homes Property tax cap
35

1 we all know if you have homesteaded property,

2 you are not assessed annually at fair market

3 value; you are assessed annually at an indexed

4 rate and the value of your property grows every

5 year in relationship to that index.

6 What is happening since that law has been

7 in effect seven or eight years now, you have

8 homesteaded property that has not kept up with

9 the market for some time.

10 The home is sold. At closing, a lot of

11 times the disclosure of what the tax liability

12 is is not going to be on what the market value

13 of the property is. The disclosure on the

14 property tax is on very reduced amounts.

15 You get really angry homeowners when they

16 buy a home, look at their closing statements,

17 then turn around after the fact and get their

18 first property tax bill coming in at the

19 uncapped rate: Dramatic changes in property

20 taxes, dramatic changes in monthly payments.

21 And this would provide a disclosure, not

22 at the taxes that were under the capped rate,

23 but the disclosure of what the taxes would be

24 at the inflated rate. It's public information.

25 It's good public policy.
36

1 TREASURER GALLAGHER: What you are doing is

2 you are mandating that the closing statements done

3 by usually the lawyers that are making the

4 closings or the title companies reflect the tax

5 due on the purchase price, even though that's

6 probably not going to be the right one, but at

7 least it will be the high number, as opposed to

8 the existing tax on the property prior to?

9 MR. ZINGALE: Exactly. In some of these

10 counties over the last eight years that have had

11 just tremendous increase in values of homesteaded

12 property -- doubling and some cases tripling --

13 that tax due for that homesteaded property has not

14 grown very much, there's a substantial change in

15 monthly payments after that.

16 TREASURER GALLAGHER: I think it's an

17 important disclosure because the HUD form is

18 supposed to be that way. The guys that are

19 filling it out are supposed to do it that way

20 without us having to pass a law.

21 MR. ZINGALE: Information is readily

22 available.

23 TREASURER GALLAGHER: But they don't do it.

24 MR. ZINGALE: There are penalties for not

25 doing it in this provision.
37

1 TREASURER GALLAGHER: I think that's

2 something they ought to be doing anyway, but I am

3 glad you picked it up.

4 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: One of the things I

5 wanted to find out; I know the new law that was

6 passed last year that says that the property

7 assessors are going to, instead of ag exemptions

8 being automatic as they have been traditionally in

9 the past, as long as you are still farming the

10 same piece of land, you are going to have to

11 reapply every single year for farm exemption under

12 the tax.

13 Now is there enough fail-safe in the way

14 that's going to be put into play this year?

15 You know, the average age of the farmers of

16 this state are going up, not down. And the

17 confusion over the fact that they have

18 traditionally always re-upped as long as they

19 were still farming is going to create a problem

20 when someone misses that filing that they

21 didn't know about until this year. Has that

22 been worked out?

23 MR. ZINGALE: What Commissioner Bronson is

24 talking about is really our item 4 that's coming

25 up. I can hit it now or can you just hold that
38

1 for a minute and let me finish the concepts and I

2 would lead that off with item 4?

3 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: All right.

4 MR. ZINGALE: So with permission, we would

5 like to see the 41 concepts adopted.

6 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion.

7 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Second.

8 GOVERNOR BUSH: There is a motion on the

9 concepts and a second. Without objection, the

10 concepts passed.

11 I am not sure what that means, but we'll

12 find out later.

13 MR. ZINGALE: Item number 4 are a series of

14 rules that take '02 legislation and build them

15 into rules.

16 One of those rules that Commissioner

17 Bronson had talked about kind of gotten

18 revealed when we were dealing with the forms.

19 Historically, agricultural property gets an

20 agricultural classification, and under that

21 agricultural classification, they get a reduced

22 property tax.

23 The law passed last year, and there is a

24 chance that it was an inadvertent change but

25 the law is pretty clear the way it reads
39

1 today -- is that those who previously received

2 that ad valorem classification have to annually

3 renew that application for that classification,

4 a lot like a number of the other exemptions.

5 This annual renewal had never been done in

6 quite sometime.

7 When this was revealed, we made the

8 legislature aware of it and we have been

9 working with the Commissioner's office for a

10 very broad-based education campaign. The law

11 is pretty clear; it says they have to this year

12 renew that agricultural classification.

13 I think there are 51 counties that this

14 will be affected. I think the other 15 -- I

15 don't think Monroe has any yet, has any

16 agricultural in there, but the other 15 we are

17 doing this annual renewal anyway.

18 But those 51 have the potential of someone

19 that had been having an ag classification for

20 many, many, many years turn around and not get

21 it next year.

22 And so we are working really hard to get

23 that message out with the property appraisers.

24 We are going to have a public campaign. We are

25 working through the Commissioner's office to
40

1 try to get that message out.

2 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Can you require a

3 mailing be sent to those property owners?

4 MR. ZINGALE: Yes, that's part of the

5 campaign.

6 TREASURER GALLAGHER: To me, you need to let

7 them know by mail.

8 MR. ZINGALE: They will be receiving that

9 notice and it's going out like soon.

10 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Personal letter from

11 Commissioner Bronson to let them know --

12 MR. ZINGALE: Absolutely.

13 GOVERNOR BUSH: -- that he wasn't responsible

14 for this.

15 TREASURER GALLAGHER: He wasn't responsible

16 for this but he wants them to know to sign up

17 quick.

18 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: It will be worded

19 right.

20 GOVERNOR BUSH: It's probably the dam

21 Governor's fault.

22 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: The follow up to that

23 question is, assuming they do forget -- maybe they

24 don't send it in -- does that mean the boards have

25 to come back to determine what that property will
41

1 be assessed at then?

2 MR. ZINGALE: I think they can go to the VAB

3 for relief.

4 MS. ECHEVERRI: They will get a notice of

5 taxing, but they can appeal to the property

6 appraiser.

7 MR. ZINGALE: Yes, they have two appeal

8 processes, one to the property appraiser and one

9 to the VAB.

10 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: That's my point here.

11 What does that property get listed at, as

12 commercial if it's not agricultural? What does it

13 get listed at?

14 MR. ZINGALE: Probably most of this will

15 get -- is homesteaded; it won't be homesteaded,

16 but it will be residential.

17 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Most people, I mean,

18 some people live on their property, some people

19 have other property they don't live on.

20 MR. ZINGALE: We need to get a hundred

21 percent of them to annually renew this year and

22 that's our goal.

23 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Okay.

24 MR. ZINGALE: So request approval of item 4.

25
42

1 COMMISSIONER CRIST: I just want to make sure

2 I understand. If people don't apply for this

3 renewal, they lose the exemption?

4 MR. ZINGALE: For that year, yes, sir.

5 GOVERNOR BUSH: Just like people that don't

6 apply for homestead exemption.

7 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Are you putting together

8 a legislative package to change the law or

9 recommend a change?

10 MR. ZINGALE: This has come up recently.

11 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Wouldn't it be nice if

12 we just provided that all the time?

13 MR. ZINGALE: In generating the forms that

14 would go out this year it was caught. I don't

15 want to prejudge what the legislative intent was,

16 but when you look at how that statute was drafted,

17 it looked like this was an inadvertent change.

18 But it clearly reads that way now in the law, and

19 it's been through legislative review and it's the

20 law today.

21 We are working with the two F&T

22 committees. They are aware of it. I think

23 Commissioner Bronson will take the charge on

24 getting that changed.

25 TREASURER GALLAGHER: I bet it's part of the
43

1 Department of Agriculture's legislative concepts.

2 MR. ZINGALE: Now we get to item 5.

3 GOVERNOR BUSH: We have got to get a --

4 SECRETARY SMITH: Move.

5 GOVERNOR BUSH: And a second?

6 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Second.

7 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without

8 objection, the item passes.

9 MR. ZINGALE: Item 5 is controversial; but

10 one we hope not today.

11 Three years ago we embarked on, at the

12 direction of the Governor and Cabinet, real

13 property guidelines. This has been something

14 that General Milligan has said before he leaves

15 he wanted to see completed.

16 If you go back three years ago, the

17 department had started real property guidelines

18 probably in less than a public arena than it

19 should have. Meetings were held between the

20 department and the property appraisers.

21 Substantial criticism came forward, and we

22 embarked on a very public process to draft

23 these guidelines.

24 Over the last three years, we have had six

25 workshops, we have had two public hearings, we
44

1 had three presentations in front of the task

2 force. We created a website. Every time this

3 document changed, it was posted on the website.

4 We got comments from property appraisers,

5 tax reps. We consulted with three national

6 experts under contract, and we hired an

7 Appraisal Institute member, that's a

8 certification to guide this project.

9 I think we have a document in front of you

10 today that are really good guidelines. They

11 are guidelines though. They do not order a

12 property appraiser to appraise property.

13 That's their constitutional responsibility.

14 But it lays out a framework for large and

15 small and middle size appraisers to be able to

16 bounce against what are good practices, and I

17 can -- I believe in my heart that we have

18 listened to a large community of interests.

19 And I don't think there is a huge amount of

20 opposition to what we brought forward today.

21 I don't think the Cabinet aides have heard

22 any opposition. They are not perfect. They

23 are always going to be work-in-progress. But

24 with your permission, we would like to get the

25 Real Property Guidelines approved today.
45

1 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion on 5.

2 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Second.

3 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without

4 objection, the item passes.

5 MR. ZINGALE: That was a major undertaking

6 for us. Have a good, safe holiday.

7 GOVERNOR BUSH: Likewise. See you on the

8 roads.

9 You are going with Director Dickinson,

10 aren't you, Larry? Aren't you going on the

11 6:00 a.m. shift in Tampa?

12 MR. ZINGALE: No, we are going to work the

13 malls on sales tax. And in my family, that's

14 mostly purchasing.

15 TREASURER GALLAGHER: He will make the flee

16 markets, collect the sales tax.

25
46

1 GOVERNOR BUSH: Department of Education.

2 Good morning, Robin.

3 MS. SAFLEY: Good morning, Governor.

4 Item 1 is the Alachua County Charter

5 School Limit Waiver Request, and we have

6 Dr. Rey Roque withe the DeSoto High School and

7 Don Lewis, who is the director of charter

8 schools and school improvement for Alachua

9 County, to speak. And it's a request to raise

10 their cap from 12 to 15.

11 MR. ROQUE: Good morning, Governor Bush. My

12 name is Rey Roque. My wife Mary is here with me

13 as well.

14 GOVERNOR BUSH: Hello, Mary.

15 MR. ROQUE: We represent a group of parents

16 in Alachua County who has come together and

17 organized to establish the first high school for

18 dyslexic children in Alachua County.

19 In the process of preparing the

20 application earlier this year we were informed

21 that Alachua County would, in fact, reach the

22 12 charter school limit imposed by the state.

23 So as accepted by Florida Statute, we went

24 ahead and applied to the State Department of

25 Education for waiver to that cap which is the
47

1 request that's here before you today.

2 We have discussed this issue with the

3 superintendent of schools, Dr. Chambers in

4 Alachua County, and with the director of

5 charter schools, Don Lewis, who is here today

6 representing the county, and they recommended

7 that the School Board of Alachua County support

8 the waiver and proposed that to the Alachua

9 County School Board, that has since then at

10 their last board meeting voted to support the

11 waiver of the cap.

12 So we come here before you today for

13 approval to the cap so that we can start this

14 first charter high school.

15 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion on item 1.

16 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Second.

17 GOVERNOR BUSH: There is a motion and a

18 second. Any discussion? Without -- you can talk,

19 if you would like, or we can just go ahead and

20 pass it.

21 MR. LEWIS: I think I better. Governor Bush,

22 Members of the Cabinet, I am here to represent

23 Alachua County, brought my daughter also to

24 observe the American political system and meet the

25 Governor. She wanted to do this.
48

1 GOVERNOR BUSH: If you stick around, we'll

2 meet upstairs if you would like; if you are going

3 to stick around to watch democracy in action for

4 the next 30 minutes.

5 MR. LEWIS: Thank you very much.

6 We are requesting a waiver to the cap for

7 three specific charter schools. One would be

8 DeSoto High School, the other one, Cytec.

9 GOVERNOR BUSH: What is the name of the high

10 school? I am sorry.

11 MR. LEWIS: De Soto High School for Dyslexic,

12 Cytec High School, which will be dealing with Job

13 Corps students and Richard Milburn Academy. And

14 we have not reviewed these; that's why we are

15 asking for the waiver of the cap.

16 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Move to waive for

17 three.

18 GOVERNOR BUSH: There is a motion -- it's to

19 lift the cap for three schools. Does that mean

20 the cap is expanded --

21 TREASURER GALLAGHER: From 12.

22 GOVERNOR BUSH: We go to 15. Yes, let's be

23 specific so you don't have to come back. There is

24 a motion to raise the cap to 15 schools.

25 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Second.
49

1 GOVERNOR BUSH: Without objection, the item

2 passes. Thank you all.

3 MS. SAFLEY: Item 2 is the Hillsborough

4 County Charter District Annual Report and a

5 request for an extension of five years.

6 We have Dr. Earl Leonard, who is

7 Superintendent, and Donnie Evans, who is

8 Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, and

9 Charlene Pirko, who is the Coordinator of

10 Charter School Programs to speak on this

11 behalf.

12 GOVERNOR BUSH: Dr. Leonard.

13 DR. LEONARD: Thank you, Robin.

14 Good morning Governor, Members of the

15 Cabinet.

16 GOVERNOR BUSH: Good morning.

17 DR. LEONARD: I thank you for giving me time

18 to present to the Cabinet our second annual report

19 for Hillsborough County Charter School, charter

20 school district.

21 You have been provided a copy of the

22 annual report, it includes the executive

23 summary and evaluation of charter district

24 goals and analysis, the impact of each waiver

25 and the supporting documents included.
50

1 The School District of Hillsborough County

2 county has accomplished many of the goals that

3 were established when we entered into the

4 contractual obligation to make Hillsborough a

5 charter district. And we continue to make

6 gains on those goals that we have not obtained.

7 The district exceeded, if I could just

8 share a few of those with you very quickly, the

9 district exceeded the FCAT rights state's score

10 average in all grade levels tested.

11 Also 110 of our schools received grades of

12 A or B; 63 schools were graded A, up from 39 in

13 'O1, 47 schools were graded B, up from 23 in

14 '01. 19 of our schools improved their grade by

15 two or more letters, and 12 middle schools

16 received a grade B, up from two in 2001, with

17 no middle school receiving a grade lower than a

18 C.

19 In both reading and math, the

20 all-curriculum percentiles exceeded state

21 averages for all grades.

22 The district has 141 nationally

23 board-certified teachers which exceeded our

24 goal of 59 and increased -- we also increased

25 the number of teachers that are eligible to
51

1 supervise interns through our Alternative To

2 Clinical Education Training Program, which is a

3 staff development and in-service training

4 program to provide that expertise for our

5 teachers.

6 Thus far the district has accomplished

7 approximately 74 percent of what we set out to

8 accomplish two years ago. However, goals

9 should not be an end to itself. Therefore, the

10 district is in the process of reviewing these

11 original goals for an adjustment upward or

12 replacement by new goals.

13 Although our charter district is defined

14 by those 19 charter district goals, there have

15 been noted accomplishments throughout the year.

16 One of the major accomplishments that we have

17 is we have a team unitary status, which ends 30

18 years of court supervision in student

19 assignment.

20 Also the district has designation as a

21 Blue Ribbon District in the Twelfth Annual

22 Expansion Management Magazine Report Card of

23 the Nation's Best Public Schools.

24 Also we have been recognized by the

25 Council of Great City Schools as one of only
52

1 three urban districts in the country with

2 higher math scores than the statewide average

3 in all grade levels, and only one of four in

4 the urban districts in the country with higher

5 reading scores.

6 Included in our agreement with the state

7 Board of Education, the school board is

8 committed to pursuing the six conversion

9 charters. I know from time to time I talked

10 with Members of the Cabinet, particularly one

11 of or two that are concerned about those

12 conversions. As you know, in '01 our technical

13 centers and our adult centers converted to

14 conversion charter schools.

15 And we have worked with some of our other

16 schools. Currently four of our schools have at

17 this time some ideas, some innovative ideas

18 that they are exploring with their staff and

19 community. They agreed to enter into a

20 planning period. And I believe that by the end

21 of the spring in '03, we'll have some

22 conversion schools within the charter concept.

23 I believe that we'll be able to accomplish

24 that this year. It's something we have been

25 working with our schools to do.
53

1 It's evident that we have realized some

2 success at the district level, but I believe

3 that probably more important, if we are going

4 to judge the success of a charter district and

5 what this legislation and this Cabinet has

6 done, is probably to look at what occurs at the

7 school.

8 We have -- I have with me today Loretta

9 Wilson, who is Assistant Principal at Stewart

10 Middle School, a school that moved from a D to

11 an A and it's in an urban environment.

12 GOVERNOR BUSH: Where is she?

13 DR. LEONARD: I wonder if you would allow her

14 to speak.

15 GOVERNOR BUSH: Absolutely. We should have

16 started with her.

17 DR. LEONARD: I know you would love to hear

18 me, but --

19 MS. WILSON: Good morning. First of all, our

20 school is a diverse school; we've got 30 percent

21 Hispanic, 30 percent black, 30 percent white and

22 1 percent other. We are 60 percent --

23 GOVERNOR BUSH: Where are you located?

24 MS. WILSON: We are located right in downtown

25 Tampa across from a housing project by Blake High
54

1 School. I don't know if you know where Blake High

2 School --

3 GOVERNOR BUSH: Yes.

4 COMMISSIONER CRIST: In fact, it was the old

5 Blake High School.

6 MS. WILSON: Yeah, it was the old Blake High

7 School before I got there.

8 What we are most proud of is that the

9 bottom 80 percent of our kids or the bottom

10 25 percent of our kids made an 80 percent gain

11 in reading. We can -- we say that --

12 GOVERNOR BUSH: Do you measure that by the

13 number of students that are moving -- that have

14 advanced a level or a grade level, or how do

15 you --

16 MS. WILSON: Based on the grading criteria

17 that -- the Florida Grading Scale, when we looked

18 at our data for last year, from '99 to 2000, we

19 had a D; from 2000 to 2001, the bottom 25th

20 percent; they look at kids who make significant

21 gains, and they look at the bottom kid, the kids

22 below the 25th percentile.

23 GOVERNOR BUSH: So is it an 80 percent gain

24 or 80 percent of the kids showed improvement?

25 There is a difference. You measure --
55

1 MS. WILSON: 80 percent made gains,

2 80 percent of the bottom 25th percentile.

3 GOVERNOR BUSH: That's why you are an A now.

4 MS. WILSON: Right, that's one of the

5 reasons.

6 GOVERNOR BUSH: That's the bonus; if you do

7 well with the kids that are underperforming, the

8 system we have in place rewards you.

9 MS. WILSON: Right.

10 One of the things that helped us to do

11 that is the waiver that we have for the PE, for

12 physical education.

13 One criteria is for kids to have to take

14 PE as a part of their sixth grade course

15 selection; kids had to take PE at seventh grade

16 and eighth grade.

17 What we have done is, instead of kids

18 taking PE, we built some reading programs that

19 students can do in lieu of that.

20 We could have given them reading and

21 probably PE, but we look at the whole child.

22 And our purpose is to make sure that the child

23 is doing some other electives that they are --

24 they might like. Some may like PE; that's a

25 choice. But the other choice could be music,
56

1 orchestra, band and some of our technology

2 courses.

3 So those are some of the reasons that we

4 have done well.

5 We set up some reading, language arts

6 blocks in our seventh grade and eighth grade

7 level to address the kids at the bottom 25th

8 percentile.

9 The other things that we have done that

10 the waiver has supported is our vocational

11 program that we put in place. We built a

12 middle school engineering program. Before, I

13 think there was a limit of four vocational

14 classes that kids could take. We set up a

15 program that kids can start at sixth grade

16 looking at doing engineering and have enough

17 for the seventh grade vocational class going

18 through engineering and eighth grade.

19 Our purpose is to make sure that kids are

20 not just exposed but are given true meaning,

21 being able to really explore those elective

22 choices.

23 This program has helped our math scores

24 tremendously because a lot of kids have done

25 the mathematics in class, and they usually
57

1 don't see the real life application. And this

2 project, Lead The Way, has been one of the

3 programs that we implemented that has helped

4 our math program.

5 We have also implemented the Math Academy

6 Program, the waiver that helped us with looking

7 at textbooks that are nontraditional to help us

8 to compact curriculum at sixth grade so that we

9 could have kids ready to do geometry at eighth

10 grade. So we have used the Flex List to get

11 text books for that particular program.

12 We also have looked at Dow Reading

13 Program. We use Bridges to Literature, which

14 is a text book adoption that is recommended

15 by -- we worked with Dr. Janet Allen with

16 looking at how we can improve the literacy and

17 reading program in our school. And those

18 textbooks are a part of the Text Flex Adoption

19 Program, so that has helped our program.

20 Also with our School Advisory Program, we

21 use to have, to try to be restrictive by

22 getting -- putting people on our School

23 Improvement Council, that they came to the

24 first meeting and after that we didn't see them

25 again; so we had some -- although we have a
58

1 diverse School Advisory Committee, we've had

2 some more flexibility on who we put on the

3 committee to really show and make impact at our

4 school.

5 Those are some of the activities that

6 we've done. And the biggest thing that I can

7 say about the waivers is it's given us the

8 flexibility to do what it takes for students to

9 help them to show improvement in the areas of

10 math and reading and writing.

11 GOVERNOR BUSH: Thank you. Can I ask -- can

12 I put you on the spot? And if you don't want to

13 answer it, just nod to the superintendent and he

14 will answer it.

15 Have you all begun to look at the Class

16 Size Initiative, its implementation and what

17 impact that will have? Will the waivers

18 provide flexibility to allow you to have

19 autonomy to do what you want? Have you seen

20 the -- what impact -- do you anticipate any

21 impact on --

22 MS. WILSON: The class size?

23 GOVERNOR BUSH: -- the lack of flexibility

24 perhaps that that might bring?

25 MS. WILSON: When we looked at scheduling at
59

1 our site, we looked at maintaining a 25-to-1 ratio

2 anyway. So we are already working and doing that.

3 GOVERNOR BUSH: You are a Title One School?

4 MS. WILSON: Yes, we are, and we use Title

5 One funds where needed to help us send -- to make

6 sure that it happens.

7 GOVERNOR BUSH: Second question is what did

8 your School Advisory Committee and the leadership

9 of the school decide to do with the school

10 improvement money?

11 MS. WILSON: Well, first thing we did was we

12 decided to put literacy in our language -- not our

13 language arts, our history and science classes.

14 We made sure that all of our teachers were trained

15 in career strategy.

16 And our goal was to make sure that

17 teaching reading was not just in the reading

18 class or language arts class, but was a part of

19 the history, part of the science. And in order

20 for us to do that, a part of our funds was put

21 there to make sure that books were put in the

22 classrooms so the kids will have books that

23 related to their topic, so the kids could see

24 that reading is a part of the full curriculum

25 instead of part of a reading class.
60

1 GOVERNOR BUSH: Praise the Lord.

2 MS. WILSON: That's a part of what we use our

3 funds for.

4 GOVERNOR BUSH: I love it.

5 TREASURER GALLAGHER: It's really appalling

6 to me that -- I mean, it's a wonderful thing you

7 are doing, but to have that be unusual just blows

8 me away. How in the world we don't make reading

9 being part of every single subject is just beyond

10 me.

11 GOVERNOR BUSH: It's getting that way.

12 TREASURER GALLAGHER: It just blows me away.

13 I know all the rest of the schools are doing it

14 now, aren't they, Mr. Superintendent?

15 DR. LEONARD: Absolutely. Reading in the

16 content area has got to be a part, and that's

17 exactly what she is saying.

18 GOVERNOR BUSH: I appreciate your coming up.

19 Congratulations on a job well done. It's very

20 exciting, at least for me. This is why I am doing

21 this.

22 DR. LEONARD: As you can see, that we have

23 made progress with the Hillsborough County School

24 District being a charter district. But what you

25 can see, what's more important is that the schools
61

1 within Hillsborough County School District are

2 making progress because of this contractual

3 arrangement we have with the Cabinet. And I

4 appreciate and stand ready to answer any questions

5 you might have.

6 GOVERNOR BUSH: Any questions?

7 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Yeah. Tell us how you

8 have gotten through your adult education centers

9 charters and now you are working on others.

10 DR. LEONARD: The conversion charters?

11 That's one of the areas that we are working on.

12 As you know, we do have a site base

13 management/shared decision making process in

14 Hillsborough County. We encourage our schools to

15 look at conversions, and we are working with a

16 number of them currently to do that.

17 Dr. Evans has indicated to me he has four

18 schools now that are in a planning stage of

19 moving in that direction.

20 What we have found, of course, because we

21 have a philosophy and a policy that we are not

22 going to force them to do that, but what we

23 have found is that by working with them, we can

24 make them more comfortable; because this is one

25 of those areas that there is a degree of
62

1 discomfort, because when we move to a

2 conversion, then you also have not only the

3 responsibility but the authority -- not only

4 the authority, excuse me, but the

5 responsibility.

6 And so we have brought them close. I

7 think we are right near developing those

8 conversions.

9 There is some question about maybe taking

10 it out of our goals, but I would like to keep

11 it in because I would like to continue to

12 encourage our schools to look beyond what they

13 are traditionally doing to find ways they can

14 meet success.

15 TREASURER GALLAGHER: It's amazing. This is

16 a good thing, but we've actually been here where

17 the parents and the teachers and the principal

18 have wanted to convert and the district squished

19 it. So it's great to hear that you are

20 encouraging.

21 GOVERNOR BUSH: It's purely a question of a

22 Do, Ray, Me on this. If you gave 95 percent of

23 the FTE amount, you would have every -- that's the

24 challenge, is how much stays to operate the rest

25 of the system, how much goes to the schools? And
63

1 the parents and teachers that want conversions

2 typically want a hundred percent of the money, and

3 the school districts balk. And that's why there

4 hasn't been a large number.

5 DR. LEONARD: Along that hundred percent of

6 the dollars, they would have to pick up a hundred

7 percent of the responsibility for doing the things

8 that the dollars pay for. And you and I both know

9 that while we are trying to reduce, in fact, as

10 much as possible any of that overhead and move it

11 to the classroom, there is still overhead.

12 GOVERNOR BUSH: Do you have a plug number in

13 your budget for each school? In other words, does

14 the teacher, the amount of money going to teacher

15 salary per middle school, for example, is it equal

16 or do you basically have an accounting system that

17 recognizes that there is different pay for

18 teachers based on longevity of service?

19 DR. LEONARD: We have an accounting system

20 that allows -- that recognizes that, but some

21 schools you have a very young faculty which would

22 be on the lower end of the -- and some schools you

23 would have more experienced faculty which would

24 cost a little more.

25 We are moving toward a site-based
64

1 budgeting process that takes this into

2 consideration but still allows the school

3 within itself, the principal, staff, teachers,

4 the school advisory council, to develop their

5 own budget and say where they want to spend the

6 dollars.

7 Like, for instance, notice right here at

8 Stewart Middle School, a Title One school, they

9 are using their Title One dollars to buy down

10 the class size, and they are doing that and we

11 see that in process.

12 In our district we've had good success

13 with that. We have over 51 percent of our

14 youngsters in Hillsborough are eligible for

15 free and reduce, so we have a number of Title

16 One schools that have been successful and buy

17 down those class numbers.

18 That's going to be real important as we

19 look at this statewide so we don't penalize the

20 schools that have done the right thing with

21 class size when this Class Size Amendment hits,

22 now that it has hit.

23 GOVERNOR BUSH: Yeah, now. There is a -- any

24 other discussion? There is a -- is there a

25 motion?
65

1 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Yes. Governor, I would

2 move to accept the report and renew the charter

3 district contract for the period July 1, 2003

4 through June 30, 2008.

5 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Second.

6 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Any

7 other discussion?

8 Without objection, the item passes.

9 DR. LEONARD: Thank you, Governor, and I hope

10 you have a very good Thanksgiving.

11 GOVERNOR BUSH: Likewise.

12 What was the name of that elementary

13 school we were in when this thing started?

14 DR. LEONARD: Glory Elementary School.

15 MS. SAFLEY: Item 3 was a request from Palm

16 Beach County to become a charter district.

17 That is -- we need a motion to withdraw

18 that item.

19 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Move to withdraw.

20 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Second.

21 MS. SAFLEY: It's my understanding John Wynn,

22 the Assistant Secretary of the Florida Board Of

23 Education, is committed to work with that

24 district, and to place a proposal and contract on

25 the new State Florida Board's agenda in January.
66

1 GOVERNOR BUSH: There is a motion to withdraw

2 and a second. Without objection, the item is

3 withdrawn.

4 MS. SAFLEY: Item 4 is the identification of

5 critical teacher shortage areas for 2003-2004

6 school year.

7 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Moved.

8 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Second.

9 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without

10 objection, the item passes.

11 MS. SAFLEY: Item 5 is changes to the

12 Commission for Independent Education Rules,

13 Florida Administrative Code.

14 In lieu of reading each of the rules I

15 would like to just submit the list to the court

16 reporter for --

17 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion on 5.

18 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Second.

19 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without

20 objection, the item passes.

21 MS. SAFLEY: And item 6 is a presentation on

22 the Assistance Plus Schools Self Reports for

23 2002-2003. And I would like to introduce Andrea

24 and Mary Jane for the report.

25 GOVERNOR BUSH: Good morning, Andrea.
67

1 MS. WILLETT: Good morning, Governor and

2 Members of the Cabinet, we have some wonderful

3 news for you this morning and a really exciting

4 opportunity for you to have more information

5 perhaps than you would like, but there is never

6 really too much information out there; it's just a

7 matter of filtering it.

8 When we came before you in June of 2002

9 with school grades, we identified 64 different

10 schools, 10 of which had a double F, F for the

11 second time in two years -- four years, excuse

12 me -- and a F, one F.

13 GOVERNOR BUSH: I am hard of hearing.

14 MS. WILLETT: I am sorry. I am kind of

15 filling in here while we get the technology up.

16 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Andrea, before you go

17 there, I have a question. I want you to know,

18 this is a joint question, but I have been elected

19 as spokesman here.

20 MS. WILLETT: I am worried, sir.

21 TREASURER GALLAGHER: On your website for

22 school reporting, it's got some great information

23 for parents and everything else. But one of the

24 things that people in education sort of do is they

25 will refer to, for example, reading, DRA training
68

1 has been completed.

2 Now how does mom and dad know what in the

3 world DRA is? I don't know. I am sure when

4 you tell me, I will but -- anybody else know

5 what DRA is?

6 GOVERNOR BUSH: Directed Reading Assistance?

7 MS. WILLETT: Directed Reading Assistance?

8 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Is that what it means?

9 MS. WILLETT: That's why he is the Governor.

10 I think it's Directed Reading Assistance. I am

11 pretty sure -- I am not sure.

12 TREASURER GALLAGHER: You are not sure

13 either? It says DRAs have been administered to

14 the students and DRA training has been complete

15 and I think whatever it means, you should spell it

16 out.

17 MS. WILLETT: It's Diagnostic Reading

18 Assessment.

19 TREASURER GALLAGHER: That's even good. Even

20 you don't even know what it means. Do you think

21 we can spell it out in here for dummies like me?

22 MS. WILLETT: Commissioner, we would be happy

23 to spell out everything for you.

24 TREASURER GALLAGHER: You might go through

25 because there may be some others.
69

1 MS. WILLETT: There are quite a few.

2 TREASURER GALLAGHER: It jumped out here.

3 Here you go, here's a CBC training; you want to

4 try that one?

5 MS. WILLETT: Sir, given my current

6 performance, I don't think so. But we will

7 certainly clear that up.

8 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Okay.

9 MS. WILLETT: Your point is well taken. And

10 it's part of what we are going to be talking with

11 you about this morning.

12 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Our Attorney General

13 pointed that out, and he is absolutely right. So

14 thank you for fixing it.

15 MS. WILLETT: Absolutely. Absolutely.

16 We did bring before you schools that had a

17 performance grade of F in August. We again

18 talked with you about what those schools needed

19 to do, and you required monthly reporting from

20 the 10 double F schools and quarterly reporting

21 from the 54 single F schools. And so we had

22 two basic questions. And that was: What is it

23 that we report and how do we go about reporting

24 that?

25 We worked very closely with the Cabinet
70

1 aides and tried to determine exactly what would

2 be sufficient information and in the categories

3 that you would need to see so that you could be

4 assured that schools were doing what it is you

5 had anticipated and expected them to do.

6 And so we agreed with Cabinet aides and

7 with the schools and with the districts that

8 these were the general categories in which

9 reporting needed to occur.

10 And primary on our list was the indicators

11 of student success.

12 This is the first time that this has ever

13 occurred in this way because the second

14 question we had to answer was how to report.

15 And I am one of those folks that tend to

16 think of the mounds and mounds of paper. But

17 on my team are a variety of people with very

18 creative ideas, and Mary Jane Tappen, who is

19 the director of the School Improvement Policy

20 Center at FSU, our co-partner in this activity,

21 said why don't we use a database? And it was

22 like: Well, of course. Why wouldn't we do it

23 that way?

24 So we've done web-based reporting, we have

25 done it for the very first time for us and for
71

1 these schools. And we have, as you can see,

2 the maiden voyage of them on these reports, and

3 there are some areas that we need to work with

4 on them.

5 But the exciting part of it is that we do,

6 in fact, have web-based report. And I would

7 love for Mary Jane to share with you the parts

8 and pieces and how it came to be and what it

9 looks like. And we'll clean up the acronyms,

10 Commissioner Gallagher.

11 GOVERNOR BUSH: I appreciate the Commissioner

12 lending a hand in my lonely struggle.

13 MS. TAPPEN: Good morning. I am very excited

14 about this project. Since Frank Brogan was our

15 Commissioner of Education, our office has been

16 producing what we call an annual report, and they

17 are end-of-the-year reports by the low-performing

18 schools.

19 This database will replace the need for

20 the schools to do this. And so all through the

21 year we'll find out what is being implemented

22 in these schools, what they think is working,

23 how the districts are assisting the schools,

24 how the state is assisting these schools and

25 finally, their needs and their indications of
72

1 success.

2 What I have for you are some slides of

3 some examples of the information the schools

4 have submitted themselves. These are school

5 self-reports. The principals have gone into

6 the database and reported things that are going

7 on.

8 This year for the first time as part of

9 Assistance Plus we have required a school

10 improvement template for those schools

11 identified as performance grade F.

12 So we tried to align all of the reporting

13 tools to what they report they are doing

14 through their School Improvement Plan.

15 And one of the schools' responses to the

16 first question, activities to date implemented

17 as directed by their school improvement plan,

18 as you see the first response from Glades

19 Central High School, this was one of the

20 schools whose principal reported to you in

21 August. And these are the things that she's

22 reported are going on in their school already.

23 And what's most exciting is they are all

24 part of the School Improvement Plan. And what

25 we have found with our low-performing schools
73

1 is they have many acts of school improvement

2 but mostly they are random.

3 About every week or so they start

4 something new. And with the use of this tool

5 and being directed by the School Improvement

6 Plan, they are aligning more of their efforts,

7 and the district is also able to align more of

8 their efforts to this tool.

9 GOVERNOR BUSH: Random is good or random is

10 bad?

11 MS. TAPPEN: Random is not necessarily good.

12 There are some wonderful projects and some

13 wonderful programs that can be implemented; but if

14 they are not aligned to the needs the schools

15 identified through their School Improvement Plan,

16 they may not do what the school would like to do.

17 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Are you on the

18 What-Does-It-Look-Like page?

19 MS. TAPPEN: Yes, I am. Do you want to go to

20 the -- the first one?

21 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Yeah, I want to back up

22 one.

23 Where are the goal one and strategy one

24 and goal two and strategy one located so that

25 one could refer to that if they wanted to know
74

1 what the bottom of the assessments in reading

2 and mathematics means.

3 MS. TAPPEN: That's a good question. In

4 August for the first time with the requirement of

5 them using the School Improvement Template, they

6 provided to us, the State Board of Education,

7 their School Improvement Plans for the year.

8 So we've asked them to report what they

9 have implemented based on what they wrote in

10 that plan. And the plan was based on a needs

11 assessment that they did.

12 TREASURER GALLAGHER: What I am wondering, is

13 this little thing just for us or does this go on

14 the Internet?

15 MS. TAPPEN: It will be for the general

16 public.

17 TREASURER GALLAGHER: There again --

18 GOVERNOR BUSH: Basically you go to Andrew

19 Jackson High School, and you would have their

20 plan, and then you would have their reports of how

21 they are implementing their plan?

22 MS. TAPPEN: Correct.

23 COMMISSIONER GALLAGHER: So on that, it would

24 spell out what goal one/strategy one and goal

25 two/strategy one are and this would tie with that?
75

1 MS. TAPPEN: Yes, sir. And that's the beauty

2 of this. Although it may appear initially

3 complicated, we are finally aligning all of these

4 tools. And I think that's a very positive thing.

5 GOVERNOR BUSH: Should detail then that as

6 well.

7 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Shouldn't one -- what

8 you have right here, if somebody went the date

9 implemented, it should spell out what goal

10 one/strategy one is on this? It's here, but this

11 paper isn't going to be on the net or it is?

12 MS. TAPPEN: This is going to be. This is on

13 the Internet.

14 But what's not on the Internet I think

15 what you are asking is their School Improvement

16 Plan. They did have the capability of sending

17 them to us electronically in a database. But I

18 don't think many of them are quite ready to do

19 that.

20 Ideally maybe next year, every year we

21 make improvements. Possibly next year, they

22 would submit their plan in a database; we could

23 link this report directly to the plan so a

24 person reading this report could link to their

25 goal one and could link to their strategy one.
76

1 TREASURER GALLAGHER: What I am saying here

2 is when you are doing the School Improvement Plan,

3 directed to Glades Central High School, and you

4 say my monthly assessments in reading and

5 mathematics, are you referring that that's what

6 goal one/strategy one, goal two/strategy one are

7 bi-monthly assessments in reading and mathematics?

8 MS. TAPPEN: Yes, sir.

9 TREASURER GALLAGHER: So goal one is probably

10 reading and goal two is probably mathematics?

11 GOVERNOR BUSH: Yes, sir. You make it sound

12 like it's really mysterious and difficult to put

13 something on the web. If they can e-mail you a

14 Word document, I mean, this is not complicated

15 stuff. Every one of these schools has the

16 capability of accessing the Internet.

17 MS. TAPPEN: You are correct.

18 GOVERNOR BUSH: So we should just ask them to

19 do it. I mean, we have it. I can't believe we

20 don't.

21 MS. TAPPEN: We have asked them. The

22 requirement for the School Improvement Template

23 was new to them this year and most of them have

24 done quite well with that. And we are taking what

25 we think are baby steps, what they think are giant
77

1 steps.

2 TREASURER GALLAGHER: The bottom line is when

3 they filled it out and did it, they did it on a

4 computer; they didn't do it on a typewriter.

5 GOVERNOR BUSH: Exactly.

6 TREASURER GALLAGHER: And then they printed

7 it out and mailed it to you. So you say: Hey,

8 you know that thing you printed out and mailed to

9 me? How about e-mailing it?

10 GOVERNOR BUSH: Andrea, you can handle this.

11 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Andrea can make it

12 happen herself. She can put that thing right up

13 on the Net.

14 MS. WILLETT: We'll be more than happy to

15 convey your wishes to the school. And it's a plan

16 for us to have the plans up there as well.

17 This is again the maiden voyage of this

18 monthly reporting, we will have it, but we are

19 not quite there yet. We wanted to share with

20 you what we do have today.

21 MS. TAPPEN: I am going to move to the next

22 slide.

23 These are examples of district assistance

24 and intervention, and this would be from

25 Escambia County and their district assistance
78

1 and intervention to Century Harbor, which is

2 now KH School; it was Century Elementary.

3 This is what the principal has reported as

4 assistance from the district. And these are

5 things that should be in the districts

6 intervention plan that is aligned in the School

7 Improvement Plan. And each of the 64 schools

8 also reported this information.

9 The next slide is an example of what a

10 school reported as State Assistance Plus Plan.

11 The reading coaches, the Department of

12 Education, Office of School Improvement staff,

13 the area Centers of Educational Excellence, the

14 Climate Surveys that were part of the

15 Assistance Plus Plan that had been collected

16 and now are returning results to the schools.

17 School matches were given to each of the

18 schools, a list of schools to match with so

19 they could work with school matched principals

20 at schools that had higher achievement and yet

21 similar student populations, and some staff

22 development activities.

23 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Here again, they were

24 visited by the ACEE and NEFEC.

25 GOVERNOR BUSH: You don't know what NEFEC
79

1 means? I don't either.

2 MS. WILLETT: We'll fill the acronyms.

3 TREASURER GALLAGHER: I am sure somebody

4 does, but I am sure the people looking at this

5 don't, or a lot of them don't anyway. Thank you.

6 MS. TAPPEN: Thank you.

7 Assistance needed, this particular school,

8 Gulf Port Elementary, continue the technical

9 support from the regional offices, continue the

10 literature, providing literature; we provide

11 them with examples of Best Educational

12 Practices and support of the reading coach.

13 The reason I picked for the next slide

14 Indications of Success for Andrew Jackson High

15 School was that they utilized data from the

16 previous year in their report to show

17 data-driven indications of success instead of

18 just a comment that referrals have been reduced

19 or that more students are attending tutoring

20 sessions.

21 They have done what we would hope a school

22 would do: Look at the data from the year

23 before, look at the current data, make a

24 comparison and show results.

25 And I thought this was a very good example
80

1 of a school reporting their indications of

2 success.

3 GOVERNOR BUSH: How many are doing good

4 indications of school reporting and how many are

5 not?

6 MS. TAPPEN: There are not many that are

7 using data currently, but then again at this time

8 of the year, there are fewer sources of data since

9 we have not had that formal assessment. There are

10 some that have been doing pretests and post tests

11 throughout the year.

12 GOVERNOR BUSH: All of them had to -- all of

13 them had to do pretests?

14 MS. WILLETT: Yes. Yes. It's the post-test

15 data that some of them have not gotten. But this

16 is definitely an area that they can improve.

17 GOVERNOR BUSH: Most of this stuff is input?

18 MS. TAPPEN: It's input by the principals of

19 the schools.

20 GOVERNOR BUSH: But I mean, input

21 measurements, not outcome measures.

22 Andrea, it seems to me by now, based on

23 what we know with the success of the schools

24 that are like kind, with same type of students,

25 we have -- I bet you could have a pretty good
81

1 indication of whether these schools are showing

2 progress or not.

3 Do our Assistance Plus Teams have an

4 assessment of that?

5 MS. WILLETT: We are using this report from

6 the October, we are gathering the data right now.

7 There are -- in terms of student achievement, it's

8 very challenging for the schools to figure out

9 what it is they can, in fact, report.

10 They don't realize that they can

11 oftentimes go beyond FCAT data to do that kind

12 of student achievement issues and mostly

13 progress monitoring.

14 We are working very closely with them to

15 help them look at their data and put that

16 information in. In fact, the conference call

17 that we are having with all 64 principals this

18 afternoon, that's one of the things that we

19 will be talking about.

20 As a result of looking at this first set

21 of monthly reports, it's quite obvious that we

22 have more work in the field to do in this

23 regard. They have some information, not all of

24 them have all of the information nor have they

25 have had --
82

1 GOVERNOR BUSH: Should we start bringing

2 superintendents back up here then?

3 MS. WILLETT: Governor, I think it's a matter

4 of people trying to go about the business of

5 school. If I am standing before you in January

6 saying the same thing, then I would say, yes. But

7 I think at this point they are simply trying to

8 get their feet on the ground.

9 GOVERNOR BUSH: We are in November.

10 MS. WILLETT: Yes, sir, I understand.

11 GOVERNOR BUSH: I think there needs to be the

12 same sense of urgency we had when we started in

13 August, and if there is, fine. But looking at

14 these reports it's impossible to tell that.

15 MS. WILLETT: Again, this is the initial

16 effort of the schools reporting in October, just

17 to begin to get them settled into what it is they

18 are supposed to be doing in this regard, for the

19 monthly reporting. They are, in fact -- teaching

20 is occurring. Teaching and learning is occurring.

21 What they are having a hard time doing is

22 documenting it.

23 GOVERNOR BUSH: When I start hearing

24 principals and superintendents start excusing away

25 your results, then I will know that we haven't
83

1 been intense enough.

2 I don't want to -- you can't -- there is a

3 point past which the -- in the school year --

4 and FCAT is taken unfortunately in February,

5 not June -- that waiting until January isn't

6 going to cut it.

7 MS. WILLETT: I am sorry, I didn't mean to

8 imply we would wait until January. I am saying we

9 are working with them, we will continue to work

10 with them, we will continue to push the sense of

11 urgency. But I am saying if the kind of reporting

12 that you see on the report is the same as you have

13 here, that's the challenge.

14 GOVERNOR BUSH: That's --

15 MS. WILLETT: The reporting is not the issue,

16 it's working with the students.

17 GOVERNOR BUSH: Right. I am just curious to

18 know, if I asked you, which I am going to do right

19 now, how many of these 60 plus schools are going

20 to show improvement this year, what would be your

21 estimation based on what you know about these

22 schools and their efforts in the first three

23 months?

24 MS. WILLETT: I would say a good

25 three-quarters of them will show improvement,
84

1 probably higher than that. Whether or not it will

2 be sufficient, I really can't say. It's very

3 early at this point to tell.

4 GOVERNOR BUSH: That's not good enough. I

5 mean, I would like to bring the superintendents up

6 here at some point as soon as possible to have

7 them explain what they have been doing and get

8 commitments from them, as they did when they came

9 in August with great optimism that they could make

10 a difference in the lives of these kids.

11 This is huge. This, to me, is what it's

12 all about. And just as the assistant principal

13 talked about going -- showing incredible gains

14 in reading and math by focussing on the lower

15 performing kids, these F schools and double F

16 schools have a golden opportunity to prove that

17 children have the capacity to learn if we

18 organize around them the right way.

19 TREASURER GALLAGHER: I might just mention --

20 GOVERNOR BUSH: We are back to battle here,

21 back to wartime conditions, makes me feel good.

22 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Those of us that are

23 still going to be here next year, including

24 yourself, Governor, believe it or not, are going

25 to miss the opportunity to be involved on a direct
85

1 basis process.

2 GOVERNOR BUSH: Oh, don't worry, I will be

3 involved.

4 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Now you have a very

5 strong indirect way. The rest of us don't have

6 direct or indirect anymore. And so I am going to

7 miss it because I spent a little time as the

8 Commissioner, I am very interested in this

9 accountability and so personally I am going to

10 miss it.

11 You are going to miss the direct line. I

12 know you will be plenty indirect, but the

13 direct line with the public being there is

14 going to be something that's going to be

15 missed.

16 GOVERNOR BUSH: I agree.

17 MS. WILLETT: We have been talking while you

18 have been talking. Mary Jane suggested to me that

19 75 percent is probably too low.

20 GOVERNOR BUSH: There you go, Mary Jane.

21 Lift my spirits up.

22 MS. TAPPEN: I had the pleasure of reading

23 these 64 reports and the pleasure of reading the

24 reports since '95. And I do see greater quality

25 every year. And I think the schools are making
86

1 progress in understanding better strategies to

2 implement.

3 And I think the districts -- I truly

4 believe, based on what I have seen this year,

5 is that the districts are taking more seriously

6 their role, which is governed by legislation,

7 to align their efforts with the school needs

8 and less of what I called before random acts,

9 more aligned acts in the right direction.

10 I do feel good about it and feel like at

11 least by what they presented -- this is not

12 linking up.

13 MS. WILLETT: We are trying to go live here

14 and it's not happening.

15 TREASURER GALLAGHER: If it doesn't work,

16 we'll blame Colleen.

17 GOVERNOR BUSH: No, it's temporarily offline.

18 TREASURER GALLAGHER: At least they are on

19 line to find out it's off line.

20 MS. WILLETT: This is what you will see if

21 you look right now. By noon today the, log on, it

22 will not be password driven.

23 MS. TAPPEN: This is the list of the reports

24 by the schools. The first 10 are our, what we

25 call our F2 schools, schools that have been
87

1 performance grade F for the second time, followed

2 by those that are F1 schools.

3 The schools that are F2 are required to

4 report monthly; in fact, as soon as this

5 meeting is over, I will send out an e-mail, and

6 they will report again for the month of

7 November. This was their October report.

8 GOVERNOR BUSH: Is that the e-mail that you

9 are going to send out saying can you e-mail us

10 school improvement, too?

11 MS. TAPPEN: I will add that also. I would

12 definitely add that.

13 GOVERNOR BUSH: This is good.

14 MS. TAPPEN: All you have to do is link the

15 school name, scroll, and you will read many of the

16 things you just saw in the slide.

17 It's a lot of reading, but I think you

18 will find that there are some good specific

19 things that are being listed.

20 And again, because I have been publishing

21 this type of report for six years now, the

22 information and the things that these schools

23 are -- that they report that they are doing is

24 of greater quality. And I think -- I do think

25 that the majority, if not all, of these schools
88

1 will be more successful this year.

2 GOVERNOR BUSH: 75 percent?

3 MS. TAPPEN: I think greater. I know

4 Andrea --

5 GOVERNOR BUSH: A super majority.

6 MS. TAPPEN: Super majority.

7 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Andrea is covering

8 herself, she is taking a chance here.

9 MS. WILLETT: Anymore questions about the

10 reporting?

11 COMMISSIONER CRIST: I just want to

12 complement Andrea and Mary Jane and thank you for

13 your hard work.

14 In the spirit of the season, we have much

15 to be thankful for, and I want to thank you for

16 working so hard and getting this thing to the

17 state that it is. And I know improvements will

18 continue to occur, because, as the Governor

19 always says, we can always do better and we

20 will. I want to thank you very, very much for

21 your work.

22 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Let me also say that

23 this kind of information available to parents and

24 to the community is something that I think has

25 potential for great return. And it's
89

1 accountability at its best. I am thrilled that

2 you all got it to this level. I can see it start

3 blossoming out even more.

4 The more parents know about the school

5 that their children are in, the easier it is

6 for them to find that out, the more active they

7 will be. And we know where they are active,

8 better things happen in the schools.

9 GOVERNOR BUSH: Which is why English is a

10 good language to use rather than as you --whatever

11 it's called.

12 MS. WILLETT: So we'll get rid of the

13 acronyms.

14 GOVERNOR BUSH: Or at least explain them. I

15 mean, look at this page here. There are some

16 things that aren't an acronym that I have no clue

17 what it means either. EDU Test, what's that?

18 Four square writing. I mean, as long as it's

19 referred to -- as the Commissioner said, if the

20 School Improvement Plan is in English and the

21 monthly reports refer back to it in some fashion,

22 at least you have a fighting chance to understand

23 what they are trying to do.

24 Okay. Thank we beat that horse into

25 submission.
90

1 MS. SAFLEY: That's it for our agenda, but if

2 it's the pleasure of the board, we could try to

3 get some superintendents up here December 11.

4 GOVERNOR BUSH: I think just out of -- since

5 this -- we have two more meetings or one? One

6 more meeting?

7 I think just to stir the pot up one more

8 time, make sure the sense of emergency before

9 the Christmas holidays is clear; I talked to

10 the superintendents about this, I am confident

11 that they understand how important this is.

12 And I would suggest the December 13 meeting we

13 have --

14 MS. SAFLEY: 19 superintendents represent

15 those --

16 GOVERNOR BUSH: I don't know if we can use

17 19, but structure something.

18 MS. SAFLEY: Well, the four superintendents

19 represent the double Fs, so we can start there and

20 span out.

21 GOVERNOR BUSH: That would be fine. Bring

22 back the same --

25
91

1 SECRETARY STRUHS: Good morning, Governor

2 Members of the Cabinet. Before we get into the

3 agenda, I would like --

4 GOVERNOR BUSH: Can I -- we need a motion to

5 defer the Florida Land and Water.

6 TREASURER GALLAGHER: First we need to

7 announce that that's what we are on.

8 GOVERNOR BUSH: Are you doing that right now

9 or are you doing the Board of Trustees?

10 SECRETARY STRUHS: I was doing the Board of

11 Trustees, sir.

12 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Let's take up Land and

13 Water first.

14 GOVERNOR BUSH: Am I on that? I've forgotten

15 which one.

16 TREASURER GALLAGHER: If you announce Land

17 and Water, I will move the minutes.

18 GOVERNOR BUSH: It's deferred.

19 TREASURER GALLAGHER: No, we got to do the

20 minutes.

21 GOVERNOR BUSH: Do we?

22 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Yes.

23 GOVERNOR BUSH: Florida -- we are deferring

24 the whole thing, Commissioner. There is a motion

25 to -- can somebody make the motion to defer the
92

1 item on the agenda?

2 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Let's defer the meeting

3 of the Florida Land and Water Adjudicatory

4 Commission.

5 GOVERNOR BUSH: That's perfect.

6 SECRETARY SMITH: Second the motion.

7 GOVERNOR BUSH: It's moved and seconded. The

8 agenda item is deferred, the meeting.

9 Board of Trustees, David.

25
93

1 SECRETARY STRUHS: Good morning, sir.

2 I wanted to take just a couple of minutes

3 for a very special presentation.

4 Two weeks ago, when you last met as the

5 Board of Trustees, you approved the purchase of

6 about 3800 acres of land to protect Wakulla

7 Springs, and you have done that consistently

8 for the last several years, helping us protect

9 Florida springs.

10 We know scientifically, we know

11 intellectually, when we buy the uplands, that

12 it is protecting the underground caverns that

13 give rise to the water quality and water

14 quantity that makes springs so special.

15 But what we have failed to do in the past

16 is adequately prove to the public that we are

17 choosing the right land, and that we really are

18 going to have a long-term positive effect on

19 water quality and quantity.

20 You did a great thing two weeks ago when

21 you voted to buy this land.

22 One week later we created history in the

23 State of Florida when, for the very first time

24 ever, we were able to send technical divers --

25 these are world famous cave divers -- to go
94

1 into Wakulla Springs and swim up into the

2 underground aquifer.

3 You all know we have done that before.

4 But what made this different one week ago was

5 for the very first time ever we were actually

6 able, through some advanced electronics, to

7 track the divers as they swam a hundred feet

8 beneath our feet.

9 And what was really special is we had a

10 high school class there from FAMU High School

11 and we got them out at Wakulla Springs early in

12 the morning, and they watched the divers go

13 into the spring.

14 And then we made this radio contact with

15 them and actually were able to track the

16 divers. It was great watching these kids run

17 across the field, through the lobby of the

18 hotel, across the parking lot, far away from

19 the spring, and yet know that in a hundred feet

20 of rock beneath their feet were these divers.

21 That by itself was a technological break

22 through, never been done before anywhere in the

23 world.

24 What was even more special is we then

25 tested a new piece of equipment that actually
95

1 allowed us for the very first time to have

2 two-way voice communication with the divers

3 while they were a hundred feet beneath our

4 feet. And they were able to talk back and

5 forth to the students.

6 And this was great for this class with

7 FAMU High School. What we did was we actually

8 advertised, not just to every school system in

9 State of Florida, but every school system in

10 the United States, and classrooms all across

11 the country for the past week have been able to

12 log on to Florida Springs.org and track the

13 progress of this scientific investigation of

14 Wakulla Springs.

15 And I know we are very short on time, but

16 this will only take a minute, I would like to

17 give you a preview.

18 GOVERNOR BUSH: I have never seen you so

19 excited, David.

20 SECRETARY STRUHS: You have to be quiet

21 because the audio is not that good.

22 GOVERNOR BUSH: After that build up, it would

23 be really disappointing if it didn't work.

24 (Playing audio.)

25 SECRETARY STRUHS: If you would like, I don't
96

1 know how you are on time, if you would like I can

2 very quickly replay just a little bit, the very

3 first ever voice communications between cave

4 divers and students on land.

5 TREASURER GALLAGHER: It's almost like

6 talking to the moon.

7 SECRETARY STRUHS: This is the inner

8 frontier.

9 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Do they say same thing?

10 GOVERNOR BUSH: Can we have a briefing on the

11 political process; that sounds rivetting. Maybe I

12 will keep that for Thanksgiving. I am sure I can

13 go on line myself and --

14 SECRETARY STRUHS: You have to listen very

15 closely, but you can hear the voices between the

16 divers and the students.

17 (Playing audio.)

18 Thank you for your indulgence.

19 TREASURER GALLAGHER: What was she saying?

20 SECRETARY STRUHS: Other than it was dark?

21 She could see the lights from the divers that had

22 gone in before her and actually use the sensing

23 equipment and swam further inland, and she was

24 watching them come up and was making visual

25 contact with them to let them know that they had
97

1 actually achieved a voice communication.

2 TREASURER GALLAGHER: How deep was she?

3 SECRETARY STRUHS: She went almost a hundred

4 feet deep. That's solid rock, and they were able

5 to get the radio signal through a hundred feet of

6 rock.

7 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Do they take a line

8 with them when they go down there so they can come

9 back?

10 SECRETARY STRUHS: Yes.

11 TREASURER GALLAGHER: So could they just take

12 a wire with them too so they could communicate?

13 SECRETARY STRUHS: They don't like to be

14 encumbered with anything that might tangle them

15 up.

16 What we have done here is actually a

17 brilliant scientist who had a 30-year career

18 with the US Navy working with submarines has

19 been able to focus his energy on these issues.

20 And he's designed a very, very low frequency

21 radio transmitter, and they run a copper wire

22 behind him that has neutral buoyancy so it

23 doesn't get entangled in their gear or in the

24 cave, and then he uses the water itself to

25 complete the circuit, thereby creating this
98

1 sort of electric signal, they then can track --

2 it appears to be a very primitive looking piece

3 of equipment; it was actually built in

4 somebody's garage, it was made out of plywood

5 and duct tape and bungy cords.

6 And yet, the thing that I found really

7 remarkable was we had these high school

8 students out there, and they were talking to

9 some brilliant scientists. And the scientists

10 were explaining to the students: We don't know

11 if this is going to work. This is part of the

12 scientific process. Don't be disappointed if

13 it fails.

14 Happily it didn't, and we were able to

15 make some history.

16 But the point is when we did the

17 interviews with the news media afterwards, they

18 said: Why were you doing this? What's the

19 main point?

20 And we were able to at that time thank and

21 congratulate the legislature and this Cabinet

22 for consistently making the wise choices to buy

23 these uplands, which we now can in a way that's

24 far more demonstrable prove the linkage between

25 the quality and quantity of the water coming
99

1 from that spring.

2 GOVERNOR BUSH: Commissioner Bronson.

3 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: The one thing, since I

4 am interested in these things myself, since they

5 took the time to go all the way up in there, did

6 they find any historical artifacts at all that

7 were up in the --

8 GOVERNOR BUSH: They found remains of the

9 First Florida family, the Bronsons.

10 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: I am thinking more of

11 prehistoric animals and maybe some things the

12 native Americans may have left thousands of years

13 ago.

14 SECRETARY STRUHS: They did find the remains

15 of a Sabertooth tiger.

16 GOVERNOR BUSH: Did they really?

17 SECRETARY STRUHS: Yes, they did.

18 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: So he got sucked down

19 into that cave?

20 SECRETARY STRUHS: Yes. What was interesting

21 was, it reminds me of Art Linkletter, you know,

22 Kids Say The Darnest Things.

23 They were given this historic opportunity

24 to be the first aboveground humans to speak to

25 cave drivers and they are allowed to ask them
100

1 anything they want. And one of the questions

2 was: What happens to you down there if you

3 die?

4 GOVERNOR BUSH: Item 1.

5 SECRETARY STRUHS: Moving right along.

6 The answer was: We would join the

7 skeletons of the Sabertooth tiger and

8 Mastodons. But happily that didn't happen.

9 Item 1 is a great item, we are really

10 proud to bring it to you. And we are

11 privileged today to have Captain Dave Mathias

12 here from the Pensacola Naval Air Station who

13 will speak to you on this agenda item.

14 This is one of those remarkable

15 opportunities where our interests to enhance

16 and secure national security, the local economy

17 and our statewide environmental priorities all

18 converge.

19 And what this -- what these two option

20 agreements will do is allow us to continue that

21 kind of partnership. So I would like to invite

22 Captain Mathias to join us and speak to this

23 issue.

24 With the approval of these two items,

25 Governor, we will achieve approximately
101

1 one-half of the acquisitions that we have

2 targeted around the Pensacola Naval Air

3 Station. So we are enthusiastic about it.

4 Captain Dave Mathias.

5 GOVERNOR BUSH: Welcome, Captain.

6 CAPTAIN MATHIAS: It's been my pleasure over

7 the past year to be associated with the Pitcher

8 Plant Prairie, the P4 as I call -- it's a long

9 acronym -- Project Florida Forever Project, and

10 especially working with Secretary Struhs and his

11 staff.

12 In all of my Navy career for the past 24

13 years I have never seen such a program, a

14 win-win program which combines the interests of

15 the environmentalists, environmental

16 stewardship, one of which the Navy embraces,

17 the interests of the state, the local

18 communities and the Navy mission.

19 This program does it all. And again, I

20 was overwhelmed when I came here and started to

21 work this program.

22 The Navy is a strong supporter of this

23 from several aspects.

24 Number 1, most importantly is what it does

25 to preserve the environment; the waterways, the
102

1 Pitcher Plant Prairie, the habitat itself, all

2 in conjunction with supporting and, if you

3 will, defending somewhat the Navy's mission in

4 Pensacola; defending because it's a constant

5 war against encroachment.

6 We have seen it across the nation. We

7 have seen it overseas, a little bit in Hawaii,

8 but more so in the conus of the United States

9 here.

10 This program does it all here, which is

11 secures the future, not only the present, but

12 future of the Navy mission because as we all

13 know that mission is changing, the DOD mission

14 is changing, our environment is changing as we

15 go ahead and find the best use of our naval air

16 stations, not only Navy but also all defense.

17 So I speak a little bit on the peripheral

18 side as well.

19 But this program does it all. It's so

20 important that we all remember that whenever we

21 will have an opportunity as this to have that

22 win-win partnership, which we engendered here

23 and which Secretary Struhs strongly supported

24 and the Navy is right with him, that I just

25 can't say enough about it.
103

1 So the Navy strongly endorses this. It

2 really does a lot for the Navy, the future

3 within Pensacola, and I think with this, we

4 have the leverage, if you will, to do more in

5 the future because we, along with the state,

6 local communities, are very, very sensitive to

7 the requirements that may come down the road in

8 terms of the overall national defense.

9 And again, the infrastructure, the lands

10 are quickly diminishing those opportunities.

11 This program does both. It takes care of that

12 D0D mission, but most importantly, our

13 environment.

14 I am just glad to have been a part of this

15 program and will continue to work hard over the

16 next year in support of this program. I

17 appreciate the opportunity of speaking here

18 today.

19 GOVERNOR BUSH: Thank you, Captain, we

20 appreciate what you are all doing.

21 SECRETARY STRUHS: One thing I would like to

22 do is while Captain Mathias is here is to publicly

23 thank him.

24 The opportunity to work on these kinds of

25 partnerships has opened up a lot of other
104

1 opportunities where our missions have been able

2 to be complementary.

3 Our laboratory space, the DEP laboratory

4 space in Pensacola is scheduled to go through

5 rehabilitation, which means we are going to

6 have to shut it down which would put in

7 jeopardy some time-sensitive sampling that we

8 have to do.

9 Captain Mathias has generously offered to

10 donate on a temporary basis space at the Naval

11 Air Station for the state to use free of charge

12 so we can continue our critical missions while

13 space is being rehabbed.

14 And these are the kinds of things that the

15 public never hears about, but helps everybody,

16 and it comes to us because of programs like

17 this.

18 GOVERNOR BUSH: There is a motion and a

19 second.

20 CAPTAIN MATHIAS: I just wanted to note for

21 the record, he doesn't have to speak, but Robert

22 Turbin is also here from Escambia County. And

23 Escambia County is also a financial partner in

24 this deal.

25 GOVERNOR BUSH: Thank you. There is a motion
105

1 and a second. Any other discussion? Without

2 objection, the item passes. Item 2.

3 SECRETARY STRUHS: Item 2, we are

4 recommending approval of two option agreements for

5 403.6 acres in the Wekiva-Ocala Greenway.

6 These are, I point out, are at 92 percent

7 of the approved value, so we think it's a good

8 value for the state.

9 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion on 2.

10 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Second.

11 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without

12 objection, the item passes.

13 SECRETARY STRUHS: Item 3 is even a better

14 value for the state, because we get it with a

15 hundred percent of federal funds.

16 This is one of our critical projects, the

17 Estero Bay Buffer Preserve.

18 Can we put the map up here very quickly,

19 please; I just want to give you a sense as to

20 how important this property is.

21 There is the morning news. If you would

22 just center that.

23 If you would point out, this is the

24 property that is on the agenda this morning,

25 Gentleman, and we have the opportunity to
106

1 acquire that. It's part of our Estero Bay

2 Aquatic Preserve with a hundred percent federal

3 funds.

4 GOVERNOR BUSH: Where was the property that

5 we discussed two weeks ago?

6 SECRETARY STRUHS: Right here. This is what

7 you looked at two weeks ago.

8 GOVERNOR BUSH: Thank you. I am not bringing

9 it up again, don't worry.

10 CAPTAIN MATHIAS: I am glad you did. This is

11 known as Mullock Creek. Mullock Creek wraps

12 around here goes, into Cypress Slough, which comes

13 back into this property.

14 Since our conversation two weeks ago, we

15 have been revisiting that opportunity, and we

16 will bring that back to you I think at a

17 substantially better value to the state as a

18 result of that.

19 So I think you will be very pleased when

20 we end up. I want you to know this property

21 here that you looked at two weeks ago, the

22 larger tract here, the other I point out is

23 this space in the dark that is now shaded will

24 also be protected as result of a donation from

25 the county.
107

1 GOVERNOR BUSH: Very good. Is there a motion

2 on 3?

3 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Moved.

4 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Second.

5 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without

6 objection, the item passes.

7 SECRETARY STRUHS: Items 4 and 5 are somewhat

8 related.

9 Item 4 is specifically seeking approval to

10 convey two parcels of state-owned lands that

11 are fire tower sites to Department of

12 Agriculture and Consumer Services so they may

13 surplus them.

14 Item 5 basically would delegate to the

15 department the opportunity to do these in the

16 future without having to put them on your

17 agenda, unless there was an issue of particular

18 or special concern.

19 The reason we are doing that is because

20 there are about 118 of these tower sites left,

21 and it doesn't make sense, we don't believe, to

22 have to put every one of these on your agenda.

23 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Move items 4 and 5.

24 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Second.

25 GOVERNOR BUSH: There is a motion and a
108

1 second on items 4 and 5. Without objection, the

2 items pass.

3 SECRETARY STRUHS: Items 6 and 7 are also

4 related. These are Murphy Act issues.

5 Item 6 would be consideration of a request

6 to convey three parcels totalling eight and a

7 half acres in Jefferson County to Lee Perkins,

8 Sr, at a value of $21,000.

9 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion.

10 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Second.

11 GOVERNOR BUSH: Motion and second on items 6

12 and 7. Without objection, the items pass.

13 SECRETARY STRUHS: Item number 8,

14 recommending approval of this item subject to the

15 special lease conditions and the payment of

16 $14,359.19.

17 The issue here is this property has 80

18 existing wet slips. There were reports, and

19 indeed I observed firsthand there was some

20 docking going off the ends of these piers that

21 had not been permitted.

22 To correct that and make it legal, we

23 would expand it by the three positions at the

24 ends of the existing piers. This takes care of

25 that specific expansion.
109

1 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion on 8.

2 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Second.

3 GOVERNOR BUSH: There is a motion and a

4 second. Without objection, it passes.

5 SECRETARY STRUHS: Item 9 is being withdrawn.

6 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion to withdraw 9.

7 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Second.

8 GOVERNOR BUSH: There is a motion to withdraw

9 and a second. The item is withdrawn.

10 Why was it withdrawn?

11 SECRETARY STRUHS: At the request of the

12 applicant.

13 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Governor, this is

14 probably a good a time as any.

15 We have an issue that we need to, I think,

16 need to get settled prior to next year, if

17 possible.

18 And that is under the constitution, there

19 are certain land transactions that require five

20 votes of this Cabinet. And that part of the

21 constitution did not change in Cabinet

22 reorganization.

23 So the issue is whether or not --

24 obviously you can't have five votes under the

25 new constitution because there's not five
110

1 people, there is only four.

2 So the question is does it take all four

3 or does it take three? Meaning a super

4 majority as opposed to a total majority.

5 And in order to have everything happen

6 legal and everything, I think it would be a

7 good idea for us to request the Supreme Court

8 to tell us whether it's three or whether it's

9 four, so that we can act accordingly when the

10 next year starts, unless somebody has some

11 better idea.

12 GOVERNOR BUSH: I would like to get an

13 analysis from my legal counsel. This is above my

14 pay grade.

15 TREASURER GALLAGHER: I understand.

16 GOVERNOR BUSH: To request the Supreme Court

17 we may have --

18 COMMISSIONER GALLAGHER: The problem is if we

19 chose three and somebody sues over that decision

20 and it ends up up there, and everything we do for

21 six months gets overturned, then we made a

22 mistake.

23 So I certainly think legal counsel ought

24 to be involved, but I think we best ask the

25 Supreme Court to tell us so that there aren't
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1 any -- there is no legal suits.

2 SECRETARY SMITH: I think the Governor could

3 make that request of the Supreme Court.

4 TREASURER GALLAGHER: I don't care who makes

5 it; I am just trying to get it made.

6 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: In conjunction with

7 that, Governor, also I think, as I remember, there

8 are some provisions on clemency of a certain

9 number of votes that we will not have either and,

10 therefore, we are in the same boat there.

11 GOVERNOR BUSH: I am not sure it's universal

12 across the board in terms of how the different

13 parts of the constitution look at it differently,

14 or there is provisions for clemency that are

15 different than appointments or of --

16 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Appointments at least

17 you have three people and the Governor.

18 GOVERNOR BUSH: You then have eminent domain

19 that's different, all this stuff. I asked my

20 legal counsel to give me a briefing on this so

21 that we can determine a course of action because

22 it is a little confusing.

23 How about if we make a -- if I talk to

24 each one of you about this, and either we can

25 talk about it in an open meeting on the next
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1 Cabinet meeting.

2 TREASURER GALLAGHER: I don't have --

3 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Talking about doing an

4 announced conversation to the press?

5 GOVERNOR BUSH: I just did; Cabinet meeting;

6 next two weeks; publicly, discussing it, in the

7 Sunshine.

8 TREASURER GALLAGHER: I don't have a

9 preference on how it is --

10 GOVERNOR BUSH: The aides will talk amongst

11 themselves. We'll talk publicly.

12 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Are we done with the

13 press yet?

14 GOVERNOR BUSH: I don't know. They don't

15 look receptive.

16 TREASURER GALLAGHER: You can read about it

17 tomorrow.

18 I don't have a preference on this. I just

19 think that we are best off having an answer

20 from as high as a level so we don't create

21 ourselves a lawsuit so somebody else goes to

22 try to get the answer because they didn't like

23 the decision we made.

24 GOVERNOR BUSH: All right. Can we discuss

25 this two weeks from now?
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1 TREASURER GALLAGHER: You can send us a memo

2 on what you are going to do and we can --

3 GOVERNOR BUSH: Frankly -- is it my --

4 General Smith, is this -- this is not the Cabinet,

5 only the Governor?

6 SECRETARY SMITH: The Governor can ask the

7 Supreme Court.

8 TREASURER GALLAGHER: You can send over to

9 them what you would like them to say yes to or you

10 could send them another question; I don't care

11 which one you do. I just hope somebody does

12 something.

13 GOVERNOR BUSH: Okay. That was an

14 interesting time to bring that up, by the way, in

15 the middle of the Board of Trustees' agenda.

16 TREASURER GALLAGHER: That's one of the

17 places --

18 GOVERNOR BUSH: It does have an impact.

19 TREASURER GALLAGHER: -- where it has the

20 biggest impact because here is where it requests

21 five votes and we are only going to have four. So

22 this is the biggest place that --

23 GOVERNOR BUSH: We'll never be able to buy

24 land through eminent domain.

25 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Will never happen
114

1 again. That's why I think it's important that we

2 do it.

3 GOVERNOR BUSH: There are some people that

4 might be happy about that.

5 SECRETARY SMITH: Maybe you can get two votes

6 and bind the office.

7 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Throw that in the

8 question to the Supreme Court.

9 GOVERNOR BUSH: Where are we?

10 SECRETARY STRUHS: Item 10 is an interesting

11 item brought to us by the Town of Fort Myers

12 Beach. If I can just introduce to you elements of

13 this discussion and invite the mayor and vice

14 mayor up.

15 This is an opportunity to dramatically

16 improve management, both environmental and

17 otherwise, of the waters off the Town of Fort

18 Myers Beach. And it brings into three

19 elements.

20 We would recommend approval of a 10-year

21 extended term lease and approval of the waiver

22 of lease fees to allow the Town to develop a

23 mooring field with 70 mooring sites. The

24 positive benefits from this are obvious.

25 The third element of it, though, we would
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1 urge that the Board of Trustees follow their

2 existing policy which is to not allow

3 year-round liveaboards.

4 The existing policy of the state is to

5 allow people to live on board their vessels

6 over sovereign submerged lands for six months

7 out of every 12.

8 What you will hear from the mayor and vice

9 mayor in their presentation is the fact that

10 there are 10 individuals who have been without

11 permit, without lease, living year round on

12 their vessels off the coast of their Town for

13 some time now, and they would like at least the

14 consideration of those 10 individuals being

15 allowed to continue to engage in that kind of

16 behavior.

17 We bring some caution to the table though

18 before you engage in this discussion. This is

19 a decision that will clearly have statewide

20 policy ramifications, and if there is a

21 precedent established here, it could

22 potentially affect our ability to manage

23 similar situations in other parts of the state.

24 One that you are all familiar with is

25 Houseboat Row in the Florida Keys is a good
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1 example of that.

2 Another one more close to home here is the

3 Apalachicola River where on our last survey we

4 believe there may be as many as 80 barges,

5 houseboats, that are more or less permanently

6 moored on the Apalachicola River providing

7 shelter.

8 And when it comes time for the state to

9 visit that issue, we want to be very careful of

10 the precedence that we set here in the Town of

11 Fort Myers Beach.

12 So our recommendation again would be to

13 approve the 10-year extended lease, to approve

14 of the waiver of the lease fees, to acknowledge

15 the Town is doing a very good thing

16 environmentally, but to suggest the Board of

17 Trustees stay true to its existing policy

18 regarding liveaboards.

19 And with that, let me introduce Mayor Dan

20 Hughes and Vice Mayor Terry Cain who have just

21 been great to work with. And regardless of the

22 outcome of this final decision, we all agree

23 this is going to be a good thing for Estero

24 Bay.

25 GOVERNOR BUSH: Good morning, Mayor.
117

1 MAYOR HUGHES: Good morning Governor, Members

2 of the Cabinet.

3 GOVERNOR BUSH: Welcome to sunny Tallahassee.

4 MAYOR HUGHES: It was a little chilly this

5 morning.

6 My name is Dan Hughes, as has been pointed

7 out, and I am the Mayor of the Town of Fort

8 Myers Beach and I am here to urge a favorable

9 recommendation for our submerged land lease to

10 accommodate marine fields in Mantanzas Harbor

11 within the jurisdictional limits of our town.

12 I would like to first thank Secretary

13 Struhs for his remarks, or at least for

14 two-thirds of his remarks. And, of course, I

15 would like to thank the DEP staff who have

16 assisted us during this permitting process and

17 been extremely helpful.

18 I am going to give you a brief background

19 and then Terry Cain, our vice mayor who has

20 been personally involved in this project for a

21 number of years, even before we incorporated,

22 will give a historical perspective.

23 And we also have with us, hopefully we'll

24 have time to hear from Michael Poff,

25 professional engineer with Coastal Engineering
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1 Consultants who have been our consultants on

2 this matter for up to approximately four years

3 now, who will deal with certain technical

4 aspects of the project.

5 Our Town was incorporated six and a half

6 years ago. One of our primary motivations to

7 incorporate was to have local authority to

8 address our environmental and ecological

9 concerns. A major concern was the Mantanzas

10 Harbor with its derelict vessels and discharge

11 of pollutants.

12 Other regulatory entities, including Lee

13 County, the Regional Planning Council, and

14 State DEP, also urged us to take action.

15 Mantanzas Harbor is contiguous to the

16 environmentally sensitive Estero Bay Buffer and

17 Aquatic Preserve.

18 One of the first things we did when we

19 created the Town is we established a Marine

20 Resource Task Force. This was our first

21 advisory board. They were charged with

22 creating the Mantanzas Harbor Plan.

23 The task force spent four years working

24 with Coastal Engineering, DEP and other

25 regulatory agencies. We've had many public
119

1 hearings, both at the level of the task force

2 and at the Town council.

3 There was strong citizen support which was

4 expressed during these hearings. We believe we

5 developed an outstanding plan which is in the

6 public's interest and are hopeful that we

7 obtain your approval.

8 This project is of critical importance,

9 not only to our town, but to Lee County and to

10 the entire southwest Florida region.

11 Now we have distributed, in addition to --

12 I am sure you have a lot of material on this,

13 but this morning we distributed a little

14 package of five additional items. If I can

15 just briefly tell you what those are all about.

16 The first one is a spreadsheet entitled

17 Mantanzas Harbor Current Full Time Liveaboards.

18 This was prepared at the request of DEP who

19 wanted to know if we could define who the

20 owners were, their boat type, and so forth.

21 It hasn't been an easy process. We first

22 had a much greater number who felt concerned

23 that they somehow they should sign up for this

24 because they might lose their status, but

25 turned out that they really were not full time
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1 liveaboards and really didn't need to have that

2 concern because they would come and go.

3 But we have identified the eight shown on

4 this list. And in addition, we have identified

5 we know, I should say, that there are two

6 others that I personally know of that are full

7 time liveaboards who have just not participated

8 in our little process here and have been

9 unwilling to sign up.

10 GOVERNOR BUSH: They are not going to sign

11 up?

12 MAYOR HUGHES: Pardon?

13 GOVERNOR BUSH: You say they are not -- there

14 are two more that are there, but they are not

15 signing up so they won't benefit?

16 MAYOR HUGHES: I think when they find out

17 that they may lose their rights to moor there,

18 they will get more interested in signing up. But

19 one is a Vietnam veteran, and one is somewhat of

20 another recluse type individual who -- they don't

21 like to sign anything, but they might have to.

22 The next exhibit, which is Mantanzas

23 Harbor Current Full Time Liveaboards, I went

24 out with the retired captain of the Coast Guard

25 here and took these pictures.
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1 The two pictures on the right side, the

2 top row and the bottom row, are the two people

3 that I was just referring to that have operable

4 vessels, that live aboard, that are -- have not

5 at this point signed up with us and given us

6 information we need.

7 The upper left-hand corner, that is on the

8 list, but we are not sure whether that boat is

9 operable. I was told it had no engine, no

10 sails but then when we took the pictures it

11 does have sails.

12 The center picture there is

13 Mr. Richardson, David Richardson, and he is the

14 one listed on here that has -- is shown as a

15 commercial use.

16 Now I want to just briefly comment on that

17 because this was one of the questions DEP

18 wanted us to ask of these people. While he

19 uses his boat for charters -- it's a

20 sailboat -- he does not operate the charter

21 from the mooring out in the harbor. He has

22 other upland facilities at a marina where -- he

23 lives on the boat in the harbor, but there is

24 no commercial operation. People don't go out

25 in their dinghies and get on his boat. He
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1 takes his boat to Snug Harbor, and they get on

2 his boat.

3 The lower left-hand, the other picture I

4 thought I would throw in. There is an example

5 of one of our inoperable boats. You will

6 notice there is no motor on the boat at all and

7 it's a typical example of some of those out

8 there.

9 The next two exhibits are just articles,

10 one of which I wrote for the local paper and

11 another which our local reporter wrote in

12 regard to the status of this thing, showing a

13 picture of me meeting with the people at -- the

14 liveaboards who met at a place called Casey's

15 Alley. It was a most interesting experience.

16 And that's where I started developing the

17 background on who these people are.

18 The last item was only delivered to me

19 today by David Richardson, and you will note in

20 the little caption there on the center where he

21 is quoted, a lot of happy people out there; it

22 said Richard Davidson. His name is David

23 Richardson and the newspapers got it backwards

24 as they frequently do, but you people are all

25 too familiar with that, I am sure.
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1 And the reason you have that is because

2 in -- this was 1992 when the local court in Lee

3 County held a county ordinance invalid,

4 unconstitutional; there was no written opinion

5 that I can find, but held it invalid on

6 constitutional grounds; and that was our

7 72-hour prohibition against liveaboards beyond

8 72 hours.

9 These people, however, that were the

10 plaintiffs in this action are the same people

11 that we are dealing with today and the site in

12 question was Mantanzas Harbor.

13 Now I understand that there was a policy

14 adopted in 1999. I would like to just first

15 say, though, that this is a policy. It wasn't

16 promulgated by legislation nor -- it's my

17 understanding it's not even an administrative

18 regulation or ruling.

19 When we started working on our plan, prior

20 to that time we were not aware that it existed;

21 having -- not being statutory or regulatory, we

22 had no notice of it and we actually prepared

23 our original harbor plan incorporating and

24 grandfathering these liveaboards. And that's

25 been in the plan from day one.
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1 At the time we -- I am repeating myself.

2 At the time we started the plan, we were not

3 aware of the policy and, in fact, I don't

4 believe the policy had even been promulgated at

5 that point.

6 What we are trying to do here is protect

7 our resources. If we get kick these people

8 out, they will probably simply move to another

9 area that's also unregulated.

10 I want to emphasize that they want to

11 stay. These are people who have jobs on our

12 island, who love our town. We even have one of

13 the boat owners, one of the liveaboards has

14 lived on this boat -- she has a child, a senior

15 in high school and has lived on the boat since

16 the child has been in kindergarten and raised

17 the child on this boat.

18 And these are people also that are

19 environmentally concerned. They are not --

20 with some exceptions, mostly the transients are

21 the problems and the pollutants.

22 GOVERNOR BUSH: Talk about the environmental

23 aspects of this. How do these, not just the ones

24 that are there 12 months out of the year, but how

25 does someone that stays six months, what do you
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1 do, what do they do and what does the city do to

2 protect the water?

3 MAYOR HUGHES: Right now we don't have any

4 ordinance, something giving us any authority to do

5 anything.

6 What they do is, most of them have -- I

7 don't know the right term -- electronic --

8 electrical devices for sewage on their boats

9 and others use pumpout upland facilities at the

10 various marinas. There is six or seven marinas

11 in the area and they all use different ones but

12 they do all pump out.

13 GOVERNOR BUSH: So there is no pump-out rule

14 or by ordinance?

15 MAYOR HUGHES: Correct. But there are those

16 that are polluting that are not on this list that

17 have inoperable boats, that we hope we will be

18 able to remove once we get our plan established.

19 Well, I think I will conclude with that and

20 just --

21 GOVERNOR BUSH: You want your vice mayor to

22 speak a little bit?

23 MAYOR HUGHES: Yes, I would like to turn it

24 over now to Terry Cain, our vice mayor.

25 MS. CAIN: Thank you for the opportunity to
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1 speak this morning.

2 As Dan said, I have been involved in this

3 program for quite an amount of time. When I

4 first became involved with the Mantanzas Pass

5 Harbor Plan, I was in my 30s and had no

6 children. My children are nine and 10 and I am

7 50, so it's been a long time.

8 GOVERNOR BUSH: How does it feel to be 50?

9 MS. CAIN: It's fabulous, thanks.

10 GOVERNOR BUSH: I have got three months to

11 go. I am just curious.

12 MS. CAIN: It's okay. Workshops began many

13 years ago. All interested parties were invited to

14 workshops and all attended. Workshops were

15 facilitated by the Florida Sea Grant College

16 Program, Department of Environmental Protection,

17 Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, West

18 Coast and Land Navigational District and Boaters

19 Action and Information League were very

20 instrumental in the workshops.

21 Everyone had input from the daily boater

22 to the commercial boater, as well as landowners

23 on both sides of the bay. This was a very

24 productive time and the Harbor Board was

25 created then.
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1 The Anchorage Management Program was

2 created as an inclusive document, including all

3 uses of the harbor. A great effort was made

4 not to make the harbor exclusive to any one

5 use. The Town of Fort Myers Beach has worked

6 very hard to maintain the same integrity.

7 Now what happened to this plan?

8 Well, that was a long time ago. What

9 happened to the plan was that different offices

10 in the county had to merge together. The staff

11 that was promoting the Harbor Plan, some of

12 them left office and different things like that

13 happened, and so to speak, the plan became dead

14 in the water.

15 The Town of Fort Myers Beach then

16 incorporates in 1966, and the community, a

17 ground swell from the community said we have to

18 do something about the harbor; they requested

19 that we bring this harbor plan back to live.

20 Again, the Town began public hearings all

21 over again. Much of the plan was, our plan,

22 was revised from the original work. And again,

23 we go on, and we try to include everybody in

24 this plan. We really especially worked hard to

25 include the liveaboards to buy into our
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1 program.

2 So a lease was devised for those

3 liveaboards. So here we are today, thousands

4 of dollars later and many years later, so today

5 we are requesting the Submerge Land Lease which

6 will include the liveaboards.

7 I have a suggestion, I don't know if it

8 will work or not. I know we are a little

9 different than other harbors, so I would put

10 forth a request that we have a six-month

11 renewable lease, and that would give the

12 boatowner the opportunity to move on if they

13 wished; it would give the Town the opportunity

14 to keep a good neighbor or get rid of a good

15 neighbor after six months.

16 The longer term means people in the harbor

17 who are a part of the community and care about

18 the waters and the Town they live in; from the

19 very beginning, over 10 years ago, the plan was

20 not to eliminate the liveaboards. The plan to

21 eliminate the derelict boats that are out in

22 the harbor.

23 The behavior that we are trying to change

24 is the behavior of people coming down to

25 southwest Florida, who buy an inexpensive boat,
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1 they stay a short period of time, they anchor

2 it in the harbor, and then they leave because

3 it's more cost effective, to leave and abandon

4 the boat, than to move on with it.

5 There are people that can use their money

6 that way, or not use their money that way.

7 The community feels very strongly about

8 including the liveaboards in the harborage,

9 because we have a big issue that we are more

10 worried about; but when they are included in

11 the anchorage, it means that they will conform

12 to our environmental plans that we have for

13 them, including the liveaboards as part of the

14 plan, will help prevent them from moving

15 outside of the managed area. Adjacent to us

16 outside of the managed area is the very

17 sensitive Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve.

18 We are trying to prevent the encroachment

19 into the Aquatic Preserve. So please, I would

20 like to request that you consider our request

21 for the management plan along with the

22 liveaboards and submerged land lease.

23 And thank you for helping us to move

24 forward to make Fort Myers Beach, enable us to

25 have the best anchorage in the state.
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1 Thank you very much.

2 GOVERNOR BUSH: Thank you.

3 COMMISSIONER CRIST: I have a question.

4 Is this area -- I have seen the one

5 picture here that shows a lot of boats in the

6 harbor area; is that the Intracoastal waterway,

7 does it impede?

8 MS. CAIN: Pardon me?

9 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Is it in the

10 Intracoastal waterway?

11 MS. CAIN: Technically it's not, but it

12 depends upon what charter book you read out of.

13 You know, the little handbooks that different

14 charters boat people will read when they go to

15 travel in different areas, it is in some of the

16 books as a place of anchorage, yes.

17 As far as the Intracoastal, our bay

18 further south is a little difficult to

19 navigate. It's much easier to come out of the

20 harbor and navigate in the Gulf Coast than it

21 is to go in the back bay.

22 So technically speaking, I would say no.

23 But I would say I have seen it in hand-held

24 guides people use for sailing to come and

25 anchor in our harbor. So it's kind of a two
131

1 way, yes-and-no answer. They don't travel

2 through the back bay as an Intracoastal means,

3 but they do go out front to travel, yes.

4 GOVERNOR BUSH: David, are there any other

5 speakers?

6 SECRETARY STRUHS: What I can do, Governor,

7 is make available to you the district director

8 down there, Rick Cantrell, who can speak with

9 local knowledge, and also Bud Vielhauer is here,

10 who is our attorney, who can speak to some of the

11 legal questions if that would be helpful.

12 What I would just want to correct for the

13 record is that the rule that currently

14 prohibits, the Board of Trustee rule that

15 currently prohibits any liveaboards for more

16 than six months out of the 12-month period is,

17 in fact, in regulation and has gone through the

18 normal administrative process.

19 It's not just a policy; it is, in fact, a

20 regulation. And indeed that's why as your

21 staff we're making the recommendation we are on

22 this item.

23 GENERAL DORAN: Mr. Secretary, I have a

24 couple for your staff.

25 First of all, I would like to know we have
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1 got a lease out there, but who is going to be

2 responsible for enforcing the terms of the

3 lease?

4 As I understand it, this is going to be

5 managed through a Harbor Management Plan, is

6 that correct?

7 MR. CANTRELL: Correct. Richard Cantrell, I

8 am district director in south Florida for DEP.

9 The Town has an ordinance, and that will

10 be enforced under the authority of the harbor

11 master. And they will be responsible for

12 enforcing the Harbor Management Plan.

13 GENERAL DORAN: That harbor master, he is

14 not -- he is contracted with the Town, is that

15 correct?

16 MR. CANTRELL: That is correct.

17 GENERAL DORAN: And he is the one that is

18 supposed to be responsible for enforcing these

19 terms?

20 MR. CANTRELL: Correct, but we, under the

21 Harbor Plan, we hold the Town responsible for

22 getting it done right -- we, the DEP, under their

23 lease. The Town is the responsible entity. They

24 are relying upon the Harbor Master to enforce

25 their ordinance, but we will hold the Town
133

1 responsible and they know that.

2 GENERAL DORAN: Is there going to be an audit

3 or how are we going to do that?

4 MR. CANTRELL: There are yearly audits that

5 are required under the management plan to show

6 that they are, A, not making a profit and that

7 they are doing what is supposed to be done on the

8 management plan.

9 GENERAL DORAN: What if -- I know this is not

10 going to happen, but because I am a lawyer I worry

11 about these things.

12 In the event that there was a failure by

13 the harbor master to enforce any of the terms

14 of the lease, what is the recourse available to

15 the state or to the Town to bring this into

16 compliance?

17 MR. CANTRELL: I assume it would be

18 contractual with the Town, it would be a breach of

19 contract with the Town. But we certainly as the

20 DEP are going to hold the Town responsible for

21 adhering to the lease if the board decides to

22 grant them a lease.

23 GENERAL DORAN: So we would do it through a

24 breach of contract action?

25 MR. CANTRELL: We would move into a breach of
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1 lease action with the Town. Again, I don't expect

2 that happening. As you can see from Mayor Hughes

3 and Vice Mayor Cain, these are very responsible

4 people. They are moving ahead with what I think

5 is a very environmentally farsighted plan. They

6 just have some problems to deal with with respect

7 to these liveaboards.

8 GENERAL DORAN: Is there right now a proposal

9 to bring this back to the Governor and the Cabinet

10 say next year to look at this again?

11 MR. CANTRELL: There was no such plan, no.

12 GENERAL DORAN: Well, Governor, I would like

13 to maybe put that out there for some discussion,

14 maybe have this -- if we are going to go this way,

15 to have this brought back to you all next year so

16 you could look at it.

17 I don't know how everybody feels about

18 that, but this is something that if we go down

19 this road, it seems to be somewhat unique and I

20 am always wondering --

21 GOVERNOR BUSH: What's unique about it? Just

22 that the plan has not been finalized?

23 GENERAL DORAN: Yeah, that's basically --

24 SECRETARY STRUHS: What I recommend, Governor

25 and Members of the Cabinet, is that we might
135

1 invite Michael Poff, who is the consultant to the

2 Town of Fort Myers Beach, to speak to these issues

3 and he is here and would like to do so.

4 GOVERNOR BUSH: That would be great. If you

5 could also talk about the water quality issues and

6 whether someone spending 12 months on a vessel or

7 six months on a vessel, if you have certain rules

8 established, does that change anything?

9 MR. POFF: Good morning, Governor, good

10 morning Cabinet members. For the record, my name

11 is Michael Poff with Coastal Engineering

12 Consultants, agent for the Town of Fort Myers

13 Beach.

14 There are a few points I would like to

15 make and I will try to answer your specific

16 questions as best I can.

17 The mayor and vice mayor made a lot of my

18 points, but it's important for all of you to

19 understand the proposal in-depth as to how to

20 deal with these year round liveaboard users.

21 During our research we found three

22 submerged land leases that have grandfathered

23 year-round liveaboards at these facilities. It

24 was when two of the facilities came under

25 grandfather registration, and when one of the
136

1 facilities was transferred to its new owner.

2 Your staff worked with these facility owners to

3 develop very good language for how to deal with

4 year-round liveaboards that were,

5 quote/unquote, a grandfathered use.

6 They include phasing the year-round

7 liveaboards out over time, meaning we are going

8 to hand you and your staff a list of the 10

9 individuals and their information and the

10 year-round liveaboard mooring for those 10 are

11 only available to those 10 individuals.

12 If they decide to leave on their own

13 volition, when they pass away, those moorings

14 will revert to a standard mooring subject to

15 the six-month limitation.

16 The language we are proposing follows the

17 three leases that are in place with that

18 language. And, in fact, working with DEP staff

19 and others, we have developed even more

20 stringent controls.

21 GOVERNOR BUSH: What are the three leases?

22 MR. POFF: There are Key Biscayne Marina, the

23 City of New Smyrna Beach Public Marina and the

24 Blind Pass Marina.

25 GOVERNOR BUSH: And they have liveaboards
137

1 year round?

2 MR. POFF: That's correct. At Blind Pass,

3 it's 62 out of 106.

4 GOVERNOR BUSH: Wouldn't a marina have

5 different facilities in terms of clean up and just

6 the water quality issue, which I assume is the

7 main issue?

8 MR. POFF: That's a good question. They were

9 required to have sewage pump-out facilities, as we

10 are.

11 We are proposing that all liveaboard

12 users, whether they are year-round or whether

13 they are there for a week or for a month -- and

14 this goes specific to your water quality

15 question -- they will be required upon

16 immediately entering the mooring field to go to

17 the harbor master's facility. He runs a

18 marina; he has docks, vessels, he has a ship

19 store, most importantly he has a sewage

20 pump-out system, that they would be required to

21 pump out immediately, and that every three days

22 that they are living on the vessel they will be

23 required to pump out.

24 We have specific permit conditions

25 requiring them to keep a log of the pump outs
138

1 and all of that information is being required

2 to be distributed to DEP as part of our

3 reporting.

4 So do we have an immediate sewage hookup,

5 a direct sewage hookup? We do not. It's, in

6 essence, a location at the harbor master's

7 facility that boats will be required to come to

8 and pump out. .

9 I don't know the specifics of these three

10 facilities, as to whether they have direct

11 sewage pickup or maybe they have a portable

12 unit that's carried out on to the dock, there

13 is a variety of ways to do it.

14 So we are providing the same amount of

15 controls, the same amount, if not more, in

16 terms of monitoring and providing that sewage

17 pump-out facility.

18 The Town will also be applying for a

19 grant. We have not applied for the grant yet

20 because the granting agencies have said until

21 you have permits in hand, do not come to us.

22 Assuming we are successful here and we get

23 permits, they will be applying for grants to

24 purchase a sewage pump-out vessel which will

25 make it very easy to go out, and in this case
139

1 the harbor master will go out to the boats and

2 pump them out as needed.

3 The question about the Intracoastal

4 waterway; the harbor is not part of the

5 Intracoastal waterway, but it is adjacent to a

6 federal channel.

7 One of the issues is that people are

8 mooring within the federal channel, and we

9 believe one of the main benefits of the project

10 is to actually enhance the public's use of the

11 harbor.

12 You look at that picture, people are

13 mooring haphazardly throughout the harbor. We

14 are going to provide a hundred foot buffer from

15 the federal channel. We are getting the boats

16 out of the seagrass beds. We are getting the

17 boats away from the riparian shorelines.

18 Another one of the complaints we've got in

19 our public meetings is during storms, some of

20 the derelict vessels or even some of the

21 properly operable vessels don't have proper

22 anchorings; the storms will break them lose

23 from the anchoring and they will smash into

24 upland docks, so there has been some riparian

25 issues. So we are providing a secondary
140

1 fairway for smaller craft to navigate the

2 harbor and create the buffer from the riparian

3 shoreline.

4 I believe there was a third question, but

5 I apologize.

6 GOVERNOR BUSH: I think you answered it.

7 That's pretty comprehensive.

8 SECRETARY STRUHS: I would -- again, this is

9 an excellent project for all the right reasons. I

10 do think we want to address the three precedents

11 that were offered by Mr. Poff because we have a

12 different view of those three precedents in terms

13 of what they actually affect. And I would like to

14 invite Bud Vielhauer to address those for you, so

15 you can hear the other side.

16 MR. VIELHAUER: Good morning. From a legal

17 perspective, we needed to take a look at those

18 three precedents that they have offered and we

19 have gone back and taken a look at each one of

20 those leases.

21 They are clearly distinguishable from the

22 situation that we have here.

23 Those were all three grandfathered-in

24 facilities. In other words, we had existing

25 facilities that we discovered and then brought
141

1 them back under leases. And then they already

2 had at these particular facilities existing

3 liveaboards under contract or under leases from

4 them.

5 So we felt that it was in the best

6 interest of the Board of Trustees, as opposed

7 to prohibiting those liveaboards that are

8 already existing, we could then be facing, if

9 we actually did that, we would be facing

10 potential breach of contracts, the Board of

11 Trustees would be sued --

12 GOVERNOR BUSH: We have no contracts right

13 now?

14 MR. VIELHAUER: It's not an existing facility

15 and there are no leases. Plus there were

16 provisions for these types of grandfather

17 facilities in the statute and in our rules which

18 do not apply to this particular facility.

19 GOVERNOR BUSH: Kind of reminds me of how we

20 are dealing with the water conservation areas.

21 Are we going to use the same precedent there? I

22 don't know.

23 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Governor, if I might,

24 one of the questions I had was the vice mayor had

25 mentioned that she was concerned that there is a
142

1 possibility these boats may upanchor and move to

2 the Aquatic Preserve.

3 Don't we have some regulations, rules in

4 play, where people can't go out and necessarily

5 anchor in aquatic preserves? I thought we

6 already had some issues on the book about that.

7 SECRETARY STRUHS: We do. And Heather can

8 talk to them in more detail, if you wish. But

9 there are, in fact, rules in place regarding

10 vessels in the aquatic upper preserves.

11 GOVERNOR BUSH: Secretary Smith.

12 SECRETARY SMITH: Governor, I want to move

13 the staff recommendation. I think that in a way

14 it's a hard decision on these folks and I

15 understand what the local government is trying to

16 do, but I think to do as they have requested would

17 really open a Pandora's box on other situations

18 like this that probably exists around the state;

19 and if they don't, you would have a lot of folks

20 wanting to take advantage of the same opportunity.

21 So I move the staff recommendation.

22 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Second.

23 GOVERNOR BUSH: There is a motion and a

24 second to accept the staff's recommendation. Any

25 other discussion?
143

1 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Let me just try to

2 clarify. There are a lot of other situations like

3 this around the state, no question about it.

4 SECRETARY STRUHS: Yes.

5 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: You just cited one

6 down in Apalachicola which they have upwards of 80

7 I think you said.

8 But none of these other situations are

9 really taking the initiative that this Town is

10 taking to really try to clean things up.

11 And I am not so sure that we aren't

12 sending a better signal or precedence by

13 encouraging the towns to take control of the

14 situation; and recognizing that a little bit of

15 good judgment and common sense in trying to

16 deal with these 10 people in a fair and

17 equitable way, is that not a better signal to

18 send to communities around the state?

19 So for that reason, I would like to really

20 amend the recommendation and approve the

21 10-year extended term lease subject to

22 conditions and approve the waiver of the lease

23 fees and approve the request to allow the

24 identified long-term, 10 people I guess it is,

25 liveaboards, to moor beyond the six-month
144

1 period; and send that signal in terms of good

2 stewardship by the town and then some good

3 judgment and common sense with dealing with

4 those people who are concerned about the

5 situation that their liveaboard was.

6 SECRETARY STRUHS: Governor and General

7 Milligan, if I might interrupt. Obviously the

8 choice is yours to make.

9 What we would advise your staff is if you

10 chose to go in that direction, if you could add

11 to the amendment and add on the record what I

12 think is your desire, that this not serve as a

13 precedent for other jurisdictions or similar

14 situations.

15 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Certainly I would add

16 on the record that that would not be construed as

17 a precedent, other than good stewardship by other

18 communities, we would take into account with

19 reasonable good judgment and common sense those

20 individuals who have been long-term liveaboards.

21 I think it might also serve well to

22 require the Town to, in fact, take the deputy

23 mayor's suggestion that they review these on a

24 six-month basis, and renew them on a six-month

25 basis of these 10 long-term liveaboards to
145

1 ensure that they have, in fact, done all of the

2 things that they are supposed to do to maintain

3 the good stewardship we are asking them to do.

4 GOVERNOR BUSH: So there is a substitute

5 motion, amended to support the city's

6 recommendation to us and to require a six-month

7 review of each one of the 10 individual leases. I

8 think I got that right. Is there a second?

9 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: I would second it.

10 GOVERNOR BUSH: Any other discussion? All in

11 favor say aye.

12 THE CABINET: Aye.

13 GOVERNOR BUSH: All opposed?

14 SECRETARY SMITH: No.

15 GENERAL DORAN: No.

16 GOVERNOR BUSH: The ayes have it. Did you --

17 General?

18 GENERAL DORAN: I voted no.

19 SECRETARY STRUHS: Item 11 -- thank you very

20 much for that -- we would like to defer until

21 January 28.

22 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Move to defer to

23 January 28, 2003.

24 GOVERNOR BUSH: Motion to defer and a second.

25 Without objection, it passes. Thank you.
146

1 TREASURER GALLAGHER: State Board, Governor?

2 GOVERNOR BUSH: State Board of

3 Administration.

4 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion on the minutes.

5 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Second.

6 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without

7 objection, the item passes. Item 2.

8 MR. STIPANOVICH: Approval of fiscal

9 sufficiency of an amount not exceeding

10 $6,5000,000, State of Florida, Florida Board of

11 Education, Florida State University Parking

12 Facility Revenue Refunding Bonds.

13 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Move item 2.

14 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Second.

15 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without

16 objection, the item passes.

17 MR. STIPANOVICH: Approval of fiscal

18 sufficiency of an amount not exceeding $7,000,000,

19 State of Florida, Florida Board of Education,

20 Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University

21 Student Apartment Facility Revenue Refunding

22 Bonds.

23 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Motion.

24 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Second.

25 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without
147

1 objection, the item passes.

2 MR. STIPANOVICH: Approval of fiscal

3 sufficiency of an amount not exceeding

4 $17,500,000, State of Florida, Florida Board of

5 Education, University of Central Florida Housing

6 Revenue Refunding Bonds.

7 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Motion.

8 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Second.

9 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without

10 objection, the item passes.

11 (The proceedings concluded at 11:55 a.m.)

25
148

2 CERTIFICATE OF REPORTER

6 STATE OF FLORIDA )

7 COUNTY OF LEON )

9 I, SANDRA L. NARGIZ, RMR, CRR, certify that I

10 was authorized to and did stenographically report the

11 proceedings herein, and that the transcript is a true

12 and complete record of my stenographic notes.

13 I further certify that I am not a relative,

14 employee, attorney or counsel of any of the parties,

15 nor am I a relative or employee of any of the parties'

16 attorney or counsel connected with the action, nor am I

17 financially interested in the action.

18 WITNESS my hand and official seal this 30th

19 day of November, 2002.

22 ______________________________

23 SANDRA L. NARGIZ, RMR, CRR
100 SALEM COURT
24 TALLAHASSEE, FL 32301
850-878-2221