Cabinet
Affairs |
1
2 T H E C A B I N E T
3 S T A T E O F F L O R I D A
4
Representing:
5
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
6 DIVISION OF BOND FINANCE
ADMINISTRATION COMMISSION
7 DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS' AFFAIRS
DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE
8 STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
TRUSTEES OF THE INTERNAL
9 IMPROVEMENT TRUST FUND
10
The above agencies came to be heard before
11 THE FLORIDA CABINET, Honorable Governor Chiles
presiding, in the Cabinet Meeting Room, LL-03,
12 The Capitol, Tallahassee, Florida, on Tuesday,
October 22, 1996, commencing at approximately
13 9:52 a.m.
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15
16 Reported by:
17 LAURIE L. GILBERT
Registered Professional Reporter
18 Certified Court Reporter
Notary Public in and for
19 the State of Florida at Large
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23 ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
100 SALEM COURT
24 TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA 32301
904/878-2221
25 1-800/934-9090
2
1 APPEARANCES:
2 Representing the Florida Cabinet:
3 LAWTON CHILES
Governor
4
BOB CRAWFORD
5 Commissioner of Agriculture
6 BOB MILLIGAN
Comptroller
7
SANDRA B. MORTHAM
8 Secretary of State
9 BOB BUTTERWORTH
Attorney General
10
BILL NELSON
11 Treasurer
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ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
October 22, 1996
3
1 I N D E X
2 ITEM ACTION PAGE
3 STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION:
(Presented by Barbara L. Jarriel, CFA,
4 Acting Executive Director)
5 1 Approved 5
2 Approved 5
6 3 Approved 8
4 Approved 11
7 5 Approved 13
Presentation 14
8
DIVISION OF BOND FINANCE:
9 (Presented by J. Ben Watkins, III,
Director)
10
1 Approved 24
11 2 Approved 24
3 Approved 25
12 4 Approved 25
5 Approved 26
13 6 Approved 26
14 ADMINISTRATION COMMISSION:
(Presented by Robert B. Bradley, Ph.D.,
15 Secretary)
16 1 Approved 27
2 Approved 28
17
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS' AFFAIRS:
18 (Presented by Carlos L. Rainwater,
Executive Director)
19
1 Approved 94
20
DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE:
21 (Presented by L.H. Fuchs,
Executive Director)
22
1 Approved 96
23 2 Approved 98
3 Approved 102
24
25
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
4
1 I N D E X
(Continued)
2
ITEM ACTION PAGE
3
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION:
4 (Presented by Robert L. Bedford, Ph.D.,
Deputy Commissioner)
5
1 Approved 103
6 2 Approved 103
3 Approved 104
7 4 Presentation 107
5 Approved 108
8 6 Approved 108
7 Withdrawn 108
9 8 Withdrawn 109
9 Approved 109
10 10 Approved 109
11 Approved 109
11 12 Approved 110
13 Approved 110
12 14 Approved 110
15 Approved 110
13 16 Approved 111
17 Approved 111
14 18 Approved 111
15 BOARD OF TRUSTEES,
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT
16 TRUST FUND:
(Presented by Virginia B. Wetherell,
17 Secretary)
18 1 Approved 113
Substitute 2 Deferred 118
19 3 Approved 119
4 Approved 120
20 5 Approved 120
6 Approved 120
21 Substitute 7 Approved 120
8 Approved 121
22 Substitute 9 Approved 121
10 Approved 121
23 11 Approved 51
24 CERTIFICATE OF REPORTER 123
25 *
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
5
1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 (The agenda items commenced at 10:55 a.m.)
3 GOVERNOR CHILES: State Board of
4 Administration.
5 MS. JARRIEL: Good morning.
6 The first item we have is approval of the
7 minutes of the meeting held on October 8th.
8 GOVERNOR CHILES: Is there a motion?
9 TREASURER NELSON: Move it.
10 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and --
11 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Second.
12 GOVERNOR CHILES: -- seconded.
13 Without objection, it's approved.
14 MS. JARRIEL: Number 2, a recommendation to
15 approve fiscal sufficiency not to exceed
16 thirteen million three hundred and eighty-five
17 thousand Board of Regents, Florida State
18 University Housing Facility Revenue Bonds.
19 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Motion.
20 TREASURER NELSON: Second.
21 GOVERNOR CHILES: Motion and seconded.
22 Without objection, it's approved.
23 MS. JARRIEL: The third item is appointment
24 of the Executive Director of the SBA.
25 It is our understanding that the Board
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
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1 members would like to use a balloting process in
2 selecting the Executive Director from the
3 finalist group.
4 We'd also request that upon completion of
5 the balloting and selection of the individual,
6 that a motion be made to cover attendant
7 personnel actions, which would include approval
8 of the salary rate, commensurate budget
9 amendment, and establishment of effective date.
10 GOVERNOR CHILES: General, would you pass
11 out the ballots, and --
12 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: I think you
13 already have one, Governor.
14 GOVERNOR CHILES: -- tally those --
15 Oh, we do? We have them?
16 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: We do.
17 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Do you have
18 your ballot --
19 GOVERNOR CHILES: Do you have a ballot --
20 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: I do.
21 GOVERNOR CHILES: All right.
22 TREASURER NELSON: Governor, while we're
23 voting --
24 GOVERNOR CHILES: I'm going to ask the
25 General to tally these for us, if he will. And
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
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1 then --
2 TREASURER NELSON: I want to take this
3 opportunity to commend the staff and the
4 Acting Director, Barbara Jarriel, for the
5 exceptional job that they have done in keeping
6 the SBA operating at such a high level of
7 efficiency during this transition time after the
8 departure of Ash, and this time, at which we're
9 going to appoint a new Executive Director.
10 So my hat's off to you, Barbara.
11 MS. JARRIEL: Thank you very much,
12 Commissioner.
13 And we also would like to thank the staffs
14 of each of your organizations for assisting us
15 through this transition.
16 And from an investment perspective,
17 certainly the market movements did not hurt us
18 at all during this five or six months.
19 So thank you all, and your staff, for the
20 excellent assistance during the transition
21 period.
22 GOVERNOR CHILES: General.
23 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Tom Herndon
24 has the most votes, and majority votes.
25 GOVERNOR CHILES: All right.
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
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1 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: I would make a
2 motion, Governor, that it be a majority vote in
3 favor of Tom Herndon.
4 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Unanimous.
5 GOVERNOR CHILES: It's been moved and
6 seconded --
7 TREASURER NELSON: (Nodding head.)
8 GOVERNOR CHILES: Without objection, then
9 it is -- motion for unanimous --
10 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: I'll make a motion
11 to set the Executive Director's salary, if I
12 may, Governor.
13 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes, sir.
14 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: At 150,000, with the
15 understanding that in six months, the
16 Executive Director will submit to the Board a
17 recommendation on instituting performance based
18 bonus packages for both the Executive Director
19 position and selected staff.
20 TREASURER NELSON: I second it.
21 GOVERNOR CHILES: It's been moved and
22 seconded.
23 Discussion?
24 Without objection, the motion is adopted.
25 MS. JARRIEL: May we also clarify,
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
9
1 Governor --
2 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes, ma'am.
3 MS. JARRIEL: -- that with the
4 establishment of the salary rate, the Board has
5 also made a motion to approve the commensurate
6 budget amendment required to establish that
7 salary rate.
8 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: If a motion is
9 required to do that, consider it so done.
10 TREASURER NELSON: And a second.
11 GOVERNOR CHILES: It's been moved and
12 seconded.
13 Without objection, that's approved.
14 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: You asked for an
15 availability date, Barbara? Or a date --
16 MS. JARRIEL: If you'd like to establish
17 that, that would be fine. I know there was some
18 discussion with the offices yesterday that the
19 SBA staff could coordinate that with the new
20 director if that's acceptable.
21 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: I think that would
22 make more sense.
23 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yeah. I think so.
24 Because we don't -- at this time, don't know.
25 I think that would be better.
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
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1 TREASURER NELSON: Do we need a motion on
2 that?
3 GOVERNOR CHILES: I don't think you need a
4 motion if you -- just to --
5 MS. JARRIEL: On the -- on the issue of the
6 competitive pay and bonus package, this is an
7 area that the Board has been interested in for
8 some time. And as you know, the investment
9 management industry is quite competitive.
10 So the staff will welcome the opportunity
11 to work with the new Executive Director on
12 submitting that plan.
13 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Thank you.
14 I would just comment that we are one of the
15 few states that doesn't operate on that basis,
16 and certainly of the major states that deal with
17 a retirement program, such as this.
18 GOVERNOR CHILES: I think it's a good
19 suggestion.
20 MS. JARRIEL: Item number 4, we've
21 submitted for your information and review the
22 investment performance and fund balance analysis
23 for the month of September.
24 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: A motion, and a
25 comment that you had a good month under some
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
11
1 adverse times, I think, in the market. Well
2 done.
3 GOVERNOR CHILES: Is there a second?
4 TREASURER NELSON: I second.
5 GOVERNOR CHILES: Second.
6 Without objection, it's approved.
7 MS. JARRIEL: And the last item relates to
8 the Inland Protection Financing Corporation.
9 The Inland Protection Financing Corporation
10 requests that the Trustees in their capacities
11 as directors hold a Board of Directors meeting
12 of the Inland Protection Financing Corporation.
13 If you recall, we had our organizational
14 meeting of this corporation on September 10th,
15 and this subsequent meeting is requested to
16 verify the selection of two legal firms to
17 assist us in proceeding forward with validation.
18 We expect to have some of the legal
19 documents, including the bond resolution, for
20 the second Cabinet meeting in November.
21 At this time, I would like to introduce
22 Virginia Wetherell, the Secretary of the
23 Department of Environmental Protection; and
24 Keith Carswell, Chairman of the Black Business
25 Investment Board, to participate in the Board
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
12
1 meeting.
2 The two items we have today is disclosure
3 of bond counsel and the selection of financial
4 advisor. We described at our last meeting the
5 RFP process which was used and concluded on
6 September 5th to select bond counsel so that we
7 could move forward with the drafting of the
8 documents.
9 We would simply like to disclose for the
10 minutes at this time that Squires, Sanders, and
11 Dempsey was selected for that purpose.
12 With regard to financial advisor, we also
13 disclose that the Division of Bond Finance had
14 recently -- in July completed an RFP process
15 through which they selected four firms to serve
16 as financial advisor for the Division of
17 Bond Finance.
18 Since that action had been taken so
19 recently, we felt it was inefficient to
20 duplicate that process, and rather we relied on
21 that list of four to choose from.
22 We determined that we would like to select
23 the firm that ranked first in the Division's
24 process. That firm is Rauscher, Pierce,
25 Refsnes, Incorporated.
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
13
1 And at this time, if there are no
2 questions, we would like to direct the Secretary
3 to set these actions into the minutes of the
4 corporation.
5 GOVERNOR CHILES: Is there a motion?
6 TREASURER NELSON: Motion.
7 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: And second it.
8 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
9 Without objection, it's approved.
10 MS. JARRIEL: The Trustees had requested
11 that a presentation be made by the Department of
12 Environmental Protection concerning the
13 Underground Petroleum Tank Cleanup Program.
14 We have with us today Mike Soule, who is a
15 Bureau Chief with the tanks program. He plans
16 to give us a broad overview of the program, but
17 specifically to address the issue of the
18 corporation's role, and the policies and
19 procedures in place to delineate the
20 December 31st --
21 (Commissioner Crawford exited the room.)
22 MS. JARRIEL: -- claims that will be
23 submitted to the corporation for payments.
24 And, Governor, after Mr. Soule completes
25 his presentation, that concludes our business,
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
14
1 so you could ask for a motion to adjourn the
2 meeting after that --
3 GOVERNOR CHILES: All right.
4 MS. JARRIEL: -- presentation --
5 GOVERNOR CHILES: Thank you, ma'am.
6 MS. JARRIEL: -- is complete.
7 Thank you.
8 MR. SOULE: Good morning.
9 I'd like to thank you for giving me the
10 opportunity to go over briefly the petroleum
11 cleanup reimbursement program.
12 Obviously to explain why I'm here, I think
13 a brief history of the program's pertinent.
14 In 1986, the Inland Protection Trust Fund
15 was created to pay for cleanup of petroleum
16 contaminated sites. That trust fund
17 principally -- or that program principally paid
18 on a reimbursement basis.
19 The aspects and legislative direction was
20 primarily that owners who conduct cleanup at
21 eligible sites are entitled to reimbursement, or
22 State reimbursement of actual and allowable
23 costs -- incurred costs.
24 The program had a shaky start at the
25 beginning.
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
15
1 (Commissioner Crawford entered the room.)
2 MR. SOULE: There was not a lot of
3 activity. And in order to up the activity, and
4 get as many sites cleaned up as possible, the
5 Legislature, and subsequently, the Department,
6 established several incentives to try to get as
7 many sites cleaned up as possible.
8 Well, by 1994, it was apparent that those
9 incentives worked. In fact, they worked too
10 well. There was over a hundred and
11 seventy-four million dollars of unpaid
12 obligation that were submitted to the State at
13 that time.
14 In response to this backlog that we like to
15 call it, the Legislature in 1995, and affirmed
16 it in 1996, essentially sunset the reimbursement
17 program.
18 That was the brief history. Where are we
19 today?
20 A briefing package was disseminated to
21 you. If you turn the page into figure 1 -- if
22 you weren't given it, I'll brief without it --
23 it identifies that there's a 350 million dollar
24 backlog as of September 1996.
25
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
16
1 (Attorney General Butterworth exited the
2 room.)
3 MR. SOULE: Primarily the reason for the
4 backlog is the availability of funds in the
5 Internal Improvement -- or excuse me -- into the
6 Inland Protection Trust Fund.
7 Payment has been made towards applications
8 received as of March of 1995. So essentially
9 you're looking at an 18-month delay in payment.
10 In addition, there's been a backlog in the
11 review of applications. Right now, the
12 Department is currently reviewing applications
13 received on or after December of 1995. That
14 shows about a 10-month delay in the application
15 review process.
16 How are these reviews conducted? That was
17 a critical concern to members of the IPFC,
18 Inland Protection Finance Corporation. I'd like
19 to convey that there are four specific measures
20 that are implemented by the Department to ensure
21 fiscal accountability associated with these
22 reimbursement claims.
23 Primarily, the claims are examined by a
24 certified public accountant. Secondly, the
25 application goes through a detailed review
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
17
1 process. Third, a quality assurance check is
2 conducted by the Department. And, finally,
3 there's a fiscal accountability making sure the
4 numbers jibe.
5 The CPA attests to the fact that activities
6 conducted are actual and incurred and associated
7 with cleanup. That information, along with the
8 application, is forwarded to our two
9 reimbursement contractors. The State has
10 contracted with two private firms to review the
11 contracts and conduct a detailed review.
12 These firms are -- have a background, or a
13 staff with numerous expertise in association
14 with geologists, accountants, engineers,
15 business administrators. And they also have
16 experience in the environmental cleanup
17 industry.
18 In addition, these contractors can -- are
19 given training by the Department, and are
20 consistently provided oversight by the
21 Department based upon current policy or changes.
22 The reviews themselves are broken down into
23 two specific program elements. There's a
24 sufficiency, slash, completeness review, and
25 then there's a reasonableness, slash,
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
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1 allowability review. So it's broken up into two
2 phases.
3 The sufficiency review primarily looks at
4 whether the site is an eligible site, whether or
5 not the works are conducted in association with
6 current rules of the Department for cleanup, and
7 that the tasks themselves have not been
8 previously claimed on other applications.
9 There's administrative requirements;
10 for example, the CPA attestation; also, the
11 certification affidavit by the owner.
12 And finally, supporting document --
13 documentation of incurred costs, with a
14 description and breakdown of activities into
15 actual units and rates. So this information is
16 provided and reviewed by the contractors.
17 Well, that's half of the review.
18 The other half of the review looks at the
19 allowability and reasonableness of the claim.
20 This review entails a look at the
21 activities and expenses, ensuring they're
22 supported by invoices and technical documents,
23 and they're not duplicated.
24 Secondly, they look to make sure the
25 activity conducted is integral to the cleanup
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
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1 process, and in accordance with Department rules
2 for cleanup.
3 Reasonable -- they also ensure that costs
4 are reasonable. And reasonable is a subjective
5 term, and the Department uses a comparison with
6 a cost charge and environmental consulting
7 firms, and environmental cleanup firms
8 throughout the state.
9 The Department's --
10 (Attorney General Butterworth entered the
11 room.)
12 MR. SOULE: -- rates have been established
13 based upon experience at the beginning of the
14 program.
15 And I want to point out, have also been
16 validated by two separate surveys. One survey
17 conducted by FSU, and another survey conducted
18 by Florida Department of Labor and Employment
19 Services.
20 Finally, the contractor makes sure that
21 calculations are accurate, and they forward it
22 back to the Department.
23 Well, at that point, the Department takes a
24 look at the application and conducts a quality
25 assurance check.
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
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1 By in far, I don't want to say it's a
2 rereview of the application. It's merely a QA
3 look to make sure, and look at target problem
4 areas that we've seen in past applications, and
5 verify those accounts.
6 Finally, a separate verification process is
7 accomplished to make sure mathematical
8 computations are accurate. And then it's
9 forwarded for payment.
10 This detailed process that's been
11 accomplished has resulted in -- this detailed
12 process has resulted in -- of the
13 757 million dollars that have been processed,
14 over 138 million have been disallowed. That
15 equates to about an 82 percent approval rate.
16 At this point, if there's any other
17 questions, I think we can address those at the
18 next IPFC meeting.
19 If I have any questions now.
20 GOVERNOR CHILES: Any questions?
21 MR. SOULE: Yes, sir.
22 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Governor, if I can
23 make just a quick comment, or --
24 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes, sir.
25 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: -- perhaps a
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
21
1 question, too.
2 I understand that the review process,
3 and -- is -- that it's fairly thorough, as you
4 have pointed out, Mr. Soule.
5 My question is: There was an Auditor --
6 Auditor General findings in reference to that
7 review process. And there were a number of
8 findings in -- from your own IG there in the
9 DEP.
10 Have those findings been incorporated into
11 the review process?
12 MR. SOULE: Some of the findings have.
13 Some of the findings, if you read that
14 Auditor General's report, really relate to a
15 programatic problem. And I think the --
16 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Okay. I --
17 MR. SOULE: -- legislation addressed that.
18 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: I appreciate that
19 and have read it.
20 Are the findings included -- appropriate
21 findings included in the review process?
22 MR. SOULE: Some of the --
23 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: From the --
24 MR. SOULE: -- findings are, yes, sir.
25 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Some of them are.
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
22
1 MR. SOULE: Yes, sir.
2 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Okay. When you --
3 when you come forward with your service
4 contract, I think perhaps that'll be another
5 opportunity to talk about this, so I'll defer.
6 But I hope you will take a very careful look
7 again at the IGs and the Auditor General's
8 findings, and ensure that, where appropriate,
9 that those findings are incorporated in the
10 review process.
11 MR. SOULE: Yes, sir.
12 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Thanks.
13 GOVERNOR CHILES: Thank you very much for
14 your report.
15 Is there a motion the meeting be
16 adjourned?
17 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Motion.
18 GOVERNOR CHILES: So moved.
19 Seconded.
20 TREASURER NELSON: Second.
21 GOVERNOR CHILES: Seconded.
22 Without objection, the meeting of the
23 Inland Protection Financial Corporation is
24 adjourned.
25 I assume that's the end of that report.
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
October 22, 1996
23
1 (The State Board of Administration Agenda
2 was concluded.)
3 *
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ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
DIVISION OF BOND FINANCE
October 22, 1996
24
1 GOVERNOR CHILES: State Board of
2 Administration.
3 Okay. We finished that.
4 All right. Bond Finance.
5 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: A motion --
6 MR. WATKINS: Item 1 is --
7 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: -- for
8 minutes.
9 MR. WATKINS: -- approval of the --
10 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Second.
11 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
12 Without objection, minutes are approved.
13 MR. WATKINS: Item number 2 is a resolution
14 authorizing the issuance of up to seven million
15 seven hundred eighty thousand dollars of
16 Board of Regents Revenue Bonds for construction
17 of a Student Services Center at
18 Florida A&M University.
19 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move it.
20 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Second.
21 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
22 Without objection, it's approved.
23 MR. WATKINS: Item number 3 is adoption of
24 a resolution authorizing the issuance of up to
25 three million six hundred five thousand
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
DIVISION OF BOND FINANCE
October 22, 1996
25
1 Board of Regents Revenue Bonds for construction
2 of a parking garage at Florida A&M University.
3 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move it.
4 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Second.
5 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Second.
6 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
7 Without objection, it's approved.
8 MR. WATKINS: Item number 4 is a resolution
9 authorizing the competitive sale of up to
10 thirteen million three hundred eighty-five
11 thousand Board of Regents Revenue Bonds for
12 renovation and remodeling of two dormitories at
13 Florida State University.
14 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
15 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Second.
16 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
17 Without objection, it's approved.
18 MR. WATKINS: Item number 5 is an adoption
19 of a resolution authorizing the issuance of up
20 to a hundred and eighty-nine million eight
21 hundred forty thousand dollars of State of
22 Florida capital outlay bonds for the benefit of
23 local school districts in the state.
24 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
25 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Second.
ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
DIVISION OF BOND FINANCE
October 22, 1996
26
1 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
2 Without objection, it's approved.
3 MR. WATKINS: Item number 6 is a report of
4 award of the sale of two hundred fifty million
5 dollars of PECO bonds. Bids were received at
6 Division of Bond Finance on September 26. The
7 bonds were awarded to the low bidder at a true
8 interest cost rate of approximately
9 5.57 percent.
10 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move acceptance --
11 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Motion.
12 SECRETARY MORTHAM: -- of the report.
13 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
14 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Second.
15 GOVERNOR CHILES: Without objection, it's
16 approved.
17 MR. WATKINS: Thank you.
18 GOVERNOR CHILES: Thank you, sir.
19 (The Division of Bond Finance Agenda was
20 concluded.)
21 *
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ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
ADMINISTRATION COMMISSION
October 22, 1996
27
1 GOVERNOR CHILES: We're going to go out of
2 order a little bit. One of our members will
3 have to leave in a few minutes.
4 So we're going to Trustees.
5 But before we -- well, actually we've got
6 two items that we've got to take up. One is
7 the -- out of order -- and one is the CSX, and
8 the other is the VA.
9 I want to take up State Board of
10 Administration just a minute before we do that.
11 Or Administration Commission, I mean.
12 DR. BRADLEY: Thank you, Governor.
13 Item number 1, recommend approval of the
14 minutes of the meeting held October --
15 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
16 DR. BRADLEY: -- 8th --
17 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Second.
18 DR. BRADLEY: -- 1996.
19 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
20 Without objection, it's approved.
21 DR. BRADLEY: Item number 2, recommend the
22 approval of the transfer of general revenue
23 appropriations under Items A and B in the
24 Justice Administration Commission.
25 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
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1 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Second.
2 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
3 Without objection, that's approved.
4 (The Administration Commission Agenda was
5 concluded.)
6 *
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
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1 GOVERNOR CHILES: All right.
2 Madam Secretary, we want to try to get to the
3 CSX, and then the --
4 MS. WETHERELL: Yes, sir.
5 GOVERNOR CHILES: -- the VA Hospital. Is
6 that in -- that would be in --
7 MS. WETHERELL: Yes, sir.
8 GOVERNOR CHILES: -- Veterans' Affairs, or
9 your --
10 MS. WETHERELL: The only item you want to
11 do on my agenda, I think, is Substitute Item 11,
12 CSX.
13 GOVERNOR CHILES: CSX. All right. Let's
14 go to that.
15 MS. WETHERELL: All right.
16 Substitute Item 11, we're recommending
17 approval of the acquisition of 114.18 acres for
18 six million nine hundred thirty-six thousand
19 three hundred dollars, which is approximately
20 10 percent less than the last offer we brought
21 to you.
22 We do have a signed contract in our
23 possession at this point that they have signed.
24 We have a number of speakers, Mr. Chairman.
25 GOVERNOR CHILES: Well, we're going to need
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1 a time limitation pretty strict in this, because
2 we're going to have to deal with the other --
3 MS. WETHERELL: Yes.
4 GOVERNOR CHILES: -- VA siting case, too.
5 MS. WETHERELL: Yes, sir.
6 GOVERNOR CHILES: So, you know, the --
7 we've been over this, the body has. I think
8 5 minutes to the side ought to probably about
9 cover it.
10 MS. WETHERELL: All right. We'll just go
11 through the list, and I think everybody is a
12 proponent. So we'll limit it to a total of
13 5 minutes. And I'll call --
14 TREASURER NELSON: No opponents.
15 GOVERNOR CHILES: No opponents?
16 MS. WETHERELL: No, sir.
17 GOVERNOR CHILES: All right. Let's let the
18 proponents have 5 minutes.
19 MS. WETHERELL: All right. I'll call first
20 on Randy Morris, who's Commissioner of
21 Seminole County.
22 MR. MORRIS: Governor and Cabinet, I want
23 to thank you very much for your time here.
24 We've brought a number of elected officials up.
25 You all have had much correspondence, I believe,
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1 from people from our whole region.
2 We want to just first frame this as this is
3 a partnership between the State of Florida, the
4 citizens of the state of Florida, and the local
5 region. This is not an issue between one
6 county, one city.
7 To demonstrate that to you, we're going to
8 have a variety of speakers, if we may, and very
9 quickly.
10 We would like to first call up from
11 Orlando, Commissioner Bagley, please.
12 MR. BAGLEY: Thank you.
13 I'm Bill Bagley, City Commissioner from
14 City of Orlando. The City of Orlando is
15 committed to the bicycle path plan.
16 All the new roads in the city of Orlando
17 must have bicycle paths. As the city develops
18 the Naval Training Center, these roads will have
19 bicycle paths. The Cady Way Bicycle Path is the
20 south boundary of the Orlando Naval Training
21 Center main base property.
22 Orange County has not only committed to the
23 extension of the existing Cady Way Trial, but
24 has also committed to the overpass over four
25 lanes of Highway 436.
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1 This extension of the Cady Way Trial to the
2 Cross Seminole Trail, which is what we're
3 discussing today, will provide almost 20 miles
4 of continuous trail to serve over a million
5 residents of central Florida.
6 This will give the State of Florida the
7 bang for the buck that justifies the expenditure
8 of funds that are intended specifically for this
9 purpose.
10 Thank you.
11 MR. MORRIS: If I may, as we run north on
12 the route of the trail, we run up into
13 Seminole County. And we'd like to cover just
14 briefly some economic impacts and the plans that
15 the City of Oviedo has, and also the City of
16 Winter Springs.
17 Mayor Mimi Bruce from Oviedo and
18 Commissioner Bunnell from Winter Springs.
19 MS. BRUCE: Good morning. I'm Mayor
20 Miriam Bruce from the City of Oviedo. I
21 appreciate this opportunity this morning to
22 address you.
23 I believe that the trail will transform my
24 city. Oviedo is historically a small farming
25 community, and the trail goes right through the
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1 middle of town.
2 Although we are one of the fastest growing
3 cities in the state, we are struggling to
4 preserve our 100-year old downtown center.
5 Winter Garden, which is a similar town, has
6 seen over a quarter of a million dollars in
7 downtown redevelopment money since the inception
8 of the West Orange Trail, and it's not even
9 finished yet.
10 There is a groundswell of support in my
11 community for the trail. We have all seen the
12 economic and recreational possibilities of other
13 trails. And as an elected official, when
14 everybody in town wants this trail, you do
15 everything in your power to try to make it
16 happen.
17 I urge you to make this gift to our
18 community, and turn it into an economical and
19 recreational asset the State can point to and be
20 proud of.
21 Thank you.
22 MS. JINELL: Governor and Cabinet members,
23 I appreciate the opportunity to be here this
24 morning. I'm Cindy Jinell, Commissioner in the
25 City of Winter Springs.
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1 The City Commission of Winter Springs has
2 enthusiastically endorsed the trail project. We
3 are the largest city in land area in
4 Seminole County. We have the largest inventory
5 of undeveloped commercial property in
6 Seminole County.
7 This project is an essential element of a
8 Winter Springs future economic development
9 plan. It represents a major economic
10 development opportunity for the county and for
11 all of central Florida. And it's one of the
12 most rapidly developing areas of the state.
13 It's the most appropriate use of this land,
14 and it will maximize the economic development in
15 that area.
16 I strongly recommend that you move forward
17 with this purchase at this time.
18 Thank you.
19 GOVERNOR CHILES: Thank you.
20 MR. MORRIS: We now have members from the
21 general community and public at large.
22 GOVERNOR CHILES: All right. Can you just
23 kind of bring them on up so we can not have all
24 the time intervene the --
25 MR. BRYAN: Hello. I'm Ken Bryan with the
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1 Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. And I just would
2 like to first -- I don't know if you ever got a
3 chance to read the Orlando Sentinel this morning
4 about an editorial that talks about the savings
5 that the Governor and Cabinet are saving the
6 taxpayers of Florida to the amount of about
7 $750,000.
8 So certainly I would like to find out, if
9 possible, if I could submit the Governor and
10 Cabinet for a Davis Award, because you certainly
11 have done your job. That's leverage that only a
12 Governor and Cabinet can have with a large
13 corporation.
14 I also want to talk about some of the
15 legislative changes last year, which were very
16 significant. The Rails-to-Trails Program, which
17 changed to a Greenways and Trails Program. And
18 that was very exciting. It signalled the end of
19 a collection of trails, and it challenged the
20 Department to create a statewide system of
21 interconnected trails.
22 This purchase going before you today, and
23 subsequent purchases could affect the future of
24 the Rails-to-Trails Program -- or I'm sorry --
25 the Greenways and Trails Program.
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1 Also last year, the Legislature put very
2 aggressive mandates on departments about
3 unincurred balances. The Department rose to the
4 challenge, and has brought this project, and
5 will be bringing other projects in the near
6 future to you.
7 And it's imperative that this body not put
8 additional screens on the Department. They're
9 following the rules and the laws as set forth by
10 the Legislature.
11 And I encourage you to approve the purchase
12 today.
13 Thank you.
14 GOVERNOR CHILES: I don't think that
15 anybody on this Cabinet objects to
16 Rails-to-Trails. I think we support it very,
17 very strong. I think we have a long history of
18 that.
19 We're talking -- our concern, and the
20 concern at the last Cabinet meeting, is
21 primarily of price, and how the appraisal was
22 done.
23 Now, that is our job. That is the job
24 we're not going to give to the Department
25 because that's a decision we have to make.
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1 We're the ones that in effect ultimately the
2 public looks to as to whether we're properly
3 spending the taxpayers' money or not.
4 So --
5 MR. MORRIS: Governor --
6 GOVERNOR CHILES: -- the arguments on price
7 would be more important to us.
8 MR. MORRIS: Governor, I think that -- I
9 think what we have also here is to --
10 recognizing your time is valuable.
11 We have both our County Property Appraiser,
12 and we also have Craig Clayton of Clayton,
13 Roper, who was the appraiser of record.
14 If we can call them forward, that might be
15 of a bit of assistance, any questions the
16 Cabinet --
17 GOVERNOR CHILES: Fine.
18 MR. MORRIS: -- and you all may have.
19 As they're coming up --
20 If you all want to come up.
21 As they're coming up, we talked about this
22 also being a joint partnership. The investment
23 of the State is the purchase of the land. The
24 investment of Seminole County alone -- this does
25 not include Orange County's commitment to this
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1 trail project -- is going to be $225,000 per
2 mile of construction, 17 miles.
3 Also $140,000 annually in maintenance. And
4 this does not include public services like the
5 Sheriff's Department and EMS services to the
6 trail. So that's our partnership of commitment.
7 MR. SUBER: Good morning. I'm Bill Suber.
8 I'm the Property Appraiser for Seminole County.
9 I understand there's some concern about the
10 difference between the appraisal that we have in
11 our roll for tax purposes versus the same piece
12 of properties, let's say, for what Mr. Clayton
13 has undertaken to appraise.
14 I think you should understand from the --
15 from the outset, the one thing that governs an
16 appraisal or the outcome of an appraisal is the
17 purpose of the appraisal.
18 For my job, we do that for tax purposes.
19 Yes, we do derive a market value. We cannot
20 though by law look at this particular, if you
21 will, corridor as a corridor.
22 In my office, we have to look at what I
23 call remnant parcels, which some are landlocked,
24 the way I have to look at them. They're the
25 little pieces and parts that are on either side
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1 of the middle line of this old railroad bed.
2 For that reason, and the limiting factors
3 within the statutes themselves, we're always
4 going to come out with a value in this
5 particular case that's going to be less than an
6 appraisal done, such as Mr. Clayton and his firm
7 have done, which is a highest and best use
8 appraisal.
9 If we could consider that the right way to
10 do things, I would submit to you, the property
11 appraisers in this state could run all of you
12 out of the state, because we could tax everybody
13 completely out of their properties. That's not
14 what we're about.
15 I think if -- if Mr. Clayton and I can kind
16 of give you some comparisons in how we consider
17 the valuation process, and what we've done to
18 derive, in my case, the value for the county for
19 tax purposes, and his, I think you'll be able to
20 understand that you're dealing with apples and
21 oranges. My value is correct, his value is
22 correct.
23 Okay? We're just taking two different
24 looks -- or perspectives at the properties.
25 Okay?
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1 MR. CLAYTON: Yes, sir. Mr. Governor and
2 Cabinet.
3 There were a number of things that -- I
4 have not reviewed Mr. Suber's appraisal, but
5 understanding the process and knowing what I
6 dealt with and the extensive research and
7 analysis that we did when we were charged to do
8 this assignment, there were several issues that
9 I think would bring about a distinctive
10 difference.
11 First, and possibly one of the major
12 elements, is very recently, they finished the
13 final survey. When we did the appraisal
14 originally a year ago, it was not -- we were
15 working with the acreage that was known at that
16 time, although there was -- it was also
17 indicated, as well as in the appraisal, that
18 there was no current survey available.
19 The property got reduced by a segment of
20 this that was to be acquired by the Department
21 of Transportation, which left a smaller amount
22 of acreage.
23 However, the difference between what that
24 acreage is, which is what Mr. Suber has on the
25 current tax rolls right now, before having
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1 opportunity to review the survey, and what our
2 number is that y'all are currently reviewing --
3 I believe, my approximate number was nine
4 million one hundred and fifteen thousand -- is
5 about 18.51 acres of additional land altogether,
6 because of the inaccuracy of the surveys, not
7 the appraisal.
8 That obviously weigh out additional value
9 because of the additional acreage.
10 The other element, in my opinion, does deal
11 with what Mr. Suber indicated with is a highest
12 and best use.
13 We do consider highest and best use in a
14 very strong growth area like the Orlando
15 metropolitan area, the east Seminole County
16 area. There's been a beltway put there, we have
17 a mall under construction. There is rapid
18 growth here.
19 And properties that in a historical area
20 that have been agricultural and other zonings,
21 which in some cases, these are still zoned
22 agricultural and commercial areas. I have to
23 consider the highest and best use of that
24 property to be fair and accurate on the -- my
25 appraisal of the property.
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1 And so I have to consider the future land
2 use plan and the reasonableness of a rezoning to
3 that, whereas, the -- if it was appraised just
4 to the zoning itself, that may way underestimate
5 the value of the property.
6 When these -- another item is that the --
7 Mr. Suber considered his --
8 GOVERNOR CHILES: Well, let me just say
9 right there, I don't think really that we're
10 hung up on the difference between Mr. Suber's --
11 MR. CLAYTON: Okay.
12 GOVERNOR CHILES: -- appraisal and yours,
13 to tell you the truth. I'm not. I don't know
14 if anybody else is.
15 My concern is whether the appraisals are
16 too high. And that is, basically on the
17 information that we were getting, that if it
18 was -- part of the land went by a shopping
19 center, we appraised the corridor, and what the
20 value of the shopping center was, if part went
21 by the other.
22 And there's a term of art that y'all use
23 doing that.
24 MR. CLAYTON: Yes. Referencing the
25 across-the-fence method?
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1 GOVERNOR CHILES: Across-the-fence method.
2 MR. CLAYTON: Yes, sir.
3 GOVERNOR CHILES: And I think -- my
4 question, and I think a lot of the Boards', was
5 whether a corridor who can't be -- it can't be
6 used for a shopping center, that's -- that's so
7 many feet for highest and best use, whether that
8 should be appraised just at what the square
9 foot -- or square inch thing of a shopping
10 center should be.
11 MR. CLAYTON: Yes, sir. I understand your
12 concern and your question.
13 The across-the-fence method -- in the
14 process of doing this, I did considerable
15 research on the National Library of the
16 Appraisal Institute to confirm what were the
17 appropriate methodologies in appraising a
18 property of this type.
19 And the prevailing literature and the
20 leading experts recommend the across-the-fence
21 method. That's just the start of it though.
22 You have to -- you do begin with it taking
23 on the unit value -- when you say the shopping
24 center, I'm sure you mean the underlying land of
25 the shopping center.
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1 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yeah.
2 MR. CLAYTON: And when you add all those
3 up, you do come to an aggregate value.
4 Then the next step becomes, is that value
5 something that should be discounted, is that
6 value something that should remain as is, or
7 should that value at that point contain a
8 premium?
9 And what the studies -- extensive studies
10 throughout the country have shown that the
11 highest and best use, as a continued corridor,
12 has anywhere from no premium, up to maybe a
13 52 percent premium.
14 If it's for recreational use, there -- it
15 varied to more than 100 percent, less than
16 100 percent. It ended up about 94 percent of
17 the across-the-fence valuation. And then these
18 are based on actual purchases, some public, some
19 private. And this was a nationwide survey and
20 study that was done in my research.
21 And so, yes, sir, the -- as highest and
22 best use for a corridor, there appears --
23 there's extensive explanation in the report.
24 But fundamentally, we have three public
25 agencies as is that are interested in this, in
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1 the DOT, the Office of Greenway and Trails at
2 the State level, and the Seminole County, as
3 well as all the -- the different municipalities
4 that have expressed their interest as well.
5 There are alternate uses for continued --
6 continued use versus liquidation. The premise
7 that you were describing is liquidation of the
8 components versus the valuation of the corridor.
9 Mr. Suber had to value each of these little
10 components, which do have a much less value. It
11 may be only 63 percent in one survey it
12 indicated on an average.
13 Whereas the entire corridor has the cost
14 of -- if you had to acquire that corridor, just
15 the opposite would be true. They say it would
16 take anywhere from four to six times the
17 across-the-fence method to actually acquire the
18 corridor, and all the associated costs that may
19 go with that.
20 When I concluded, I ended up not applying a
21 discount, nor a premium. And more evidence
22 actually was leaning toward a premium.
23 And so, you know, that was the methodology
24 that was used. Each of these categories is well
25 supported by the group of sales. I broke it
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1 down to seven different land use categories,
2 versus the 32 tax parcels that Mr. Suber was
3 charged in assessing.
4 GOVERNOR CHILES: Thank you.
5 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Governor --
6 GOVERNOR CHILES: Question.
7 Yes.
8 SECRETARY MORTHAM: -- having heard all
9 that --
10 GOVERNOR CHILES: Uh-hum.
11 SECRETARY MORTHAM: -- I'd just like to ask
12 both of the appraisers their opinion of the six
13 million nine hundred thousand dollar figure, in
14 relationship to the total property being
15 acquired.
16 Just yes or no: Is it good, or is it not
17 good?
18 MR. SUBER: I'm not familiar with the
19 six million dollar figure.
20 SECRETARY MORTHAM: The purchase price of
21 six million nine hundred thousand dollars for
22 the entire parcel.
23 MR. CLAYTON: I think he's saying we're
24 not -- we were not participants in the
25 negotiations. But as -- as an answer to that
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1 valuation, my opinion would be that the State
2 would be getting a very good buy, and the
3 community itself would be getting a tremendous
4 asset. Yes, ma'am.
5 MR. SUBER: And I would agree with that.
6 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Thank you.
7 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Can I ask
8 one question, Governor?
9 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes, sir.
10 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: If I wanted
11 to liquidate this property, what would it be --
12 what would you discount it?
13 Because everybody you're saying wants to
14 purchase it. We seem to be bidding against each
15 other. It's to government.
16 MR. CLAYTON: If you were to liquidate it
17 as a whole, the survey -- the study indicated an
18 average of about 63 percent. They showed -- the
19 examples they gave were anywhere from 44 to
20 87 percent of value. And, in fact, the 6.9,
21 I believe, does fall within that range even. If
22 it was liquidation, which it is not.
23 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: You mean,
24 you would deduct 66 percent, or you just
25 would --
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1 MR. CLAYTON: No, no. Sixty-- excuse me.
2 Not a 66 percent discount -- or 67 -- excuse me,
3 63. I apologize.
4 It's 63 percent of the across-the-fence
5 method, which would be the nine million one
6 fifteen. That would be the average number.
7 So the 44 to 87 percent is -- 44 to
8 87 percent of the --
9 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Do you want it?
10 MR. CLAYTON: -- across-the-fence method.
11 GOVERNOR CHILES: I think it might be
12 timely.
13 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Okay. So we have a
14 motion on the table, I'd like to move approval
15 of the purchase for 6.9 million dollars.
16 GOVERNOR CHILES: Is there a second?
17 TREASURER NELSON: I second it.
18 GOVERNOR CHILES: It's been moved and
19 seconded.
20 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Governor, if I could
21 make a quick comment.
22 The first speaker did refer to this
23 Orlando Sentinel editorial this morning, and
24 I think that what's apropos is the fact that
25 this Cabinet suggested that this was too much
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1 money originally. And I think that -- that
2 everybody is grateful that now it appears that
3 we will be saving a considerable sum of money.
4 We're going to be saving $600,000 in the
5 purchase price, plus another $146,000 that the
6 survey would have cost the State of Florida.
7 I think that the -- the delay was certainly
8 appropriate any time that we can save those kind
9 of dollars. We did receive a handout here today
10 referencing the Pinellas Trail, which I am very
11 well aware of, and it does have tremendous
12 impact.
13 I think the fact that citizens are going to
14 be able to use this trail is fantastic. The
15 fact that there was nobody that spoke in
16 opposition is pretty phenomenal in itself.
17 I see that we have Eva Armstrong here from
18 the Audubon Society, and we may want to hear
19 from her, since we did not hear from the
20 environmentalist side.
21 But I feel strongly that this is -- this is
22 a piece of property that we are going to be able
23 to utilize for recreation, and we're also going
24 to be able to create jobs and economic
25 development as a result. And I think that those
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1 things have to impact our decision.
2 And, yes, it is a large sum of money. But
3 if we're going to, in fact, not purchase this
4 piece of property because of, quote, what is the
5 liquidation -- what would be the liquidation
6 price, maybe every time we bring a piece of
7 property before the Cabinet, we need to look at
8 those same issues.
9 GOVERNOR CHILES: Further discussion?
10 Will you call the roll?
11 MS. WETHERELL: Yes, sir.
12 Treasurer Nelson.
13 TREASURER NELSON: Yes.
14 MS. WETHERELL: Attorney General
15 Butterworth.
16 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: No.
17 MS. WETHERELL: Governor Chiles.
18 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes.
19 MS. WETHERELL: Commissioner Crawford.
20 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Yes.
21 MS. WETHERELL: Secretary Mortham.
22 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Yes.
23 MS. WETHERELL: Comptroller Milligan.
24 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: No.
25 MS. WETHERELL: Four votes, and that's all
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1 you need.
2 GOVERNOR CHILES: All right. By your vote,
3 you have approved the sale.
4 (The Board of Trustees of the Internal
5 Improvement Trust Fund Agenda was continued.)
6 *
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1 (Treasurer Nelson exited the room.)
2 GOVERNOR CHILES: All right. Let's go down
3 to the VA.
4 Veteran Affairs.
5 Yes, sir.
6 MR. RAINWATER: Good morning, Governor.
7 GOVERNOR CHILES: Good morning.
8 MR. RAINWATER: Members of the Cabinet.
9 I'm Carlos Rainwater, Executive Director,
10 Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs.
11 This morning I appreciate the opportunity
12 to present to you the Department's
13 recommendation for a second veterans nursing
14 home in our state.
15 Our state is home to a million
16 seven hundred thousand plus veterans. The
17 largest segment of that population are
18 World War II veterans who now have an average
19 age of more than seventy-five years. Obviously
20 there's a growing need for veterans nursing home
21 care in our state.
22 The U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs,
23 State Veterans Nursing Home Program, makes it
24 possible for states to construct and operate
25 nursing homes for veterans with a significant
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1 lessening of the financial burden on the states
2 for providing that care to their general
3 population.
4 Currently our Department successfully
5 manages a 120-bed nursing home facility in
6 Daytona Beach; and last session, the Legislature
7 granted us authority to proceed with a second
8 nursing home, with the capacity to care for
9 veteran patients with Alzheimer's and other
10 dementia related diseases.
11 In arriving at our recommendation to you
12 for a site for the second nursing home, we
13 employed the criteria approved by the Governor
14 and Cabinet on December 17th, 1991, after having
15 been reviewed at a public hearing in
16 October the 9th, 1991.
17 Those criteria were based on empirical
18 data, and as nearly as possible, eliminated
19 subjective evaluations of the sites.
20 This year, I appointed a Site Selection
21 Committee to evaluate the proposals, and to make
22 personal visits to each of the sites.
23 The members of that committee were:
24 Ron Frankel, our General Counsel, who is with me
25 this morning; Polly Tyler, Administrator of the
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1 Florida Veterans' Home in Lake City;
2 John Creighton, the Administrator of the
3 Emory Bennett Nursing Home in Daytona Beach;
4 FDVA staff members Frank Buxton, Karl Dalke, and
5 Bill Jones; and Mr. Tyler Upham of the
6 Department of Management Services here in
7 Tallahassee.
8 We invited proposal submissions from every
9 county in our state. We received 17 site
10 proposals from 13 different counties.
11 I can tell you that, in fact, after
12 reviewing the submissions, a veterans nursing
13 home is needed in each and every one of those
14 counties who made submissions.
15 However, we only have the authority to
16 construct one nursing home, and it fell to the
17 Department the difficult task of determining the
18 one location that scored highest under the
19 approved criteria.
20 The committee met at a public forum on
21 September 20th of this year, and reached its
22 recommendation to me.
23 (Treasurer Nelson entered the room.)
24 MR. RAINWATER: The top six sites were:
25 Number one, the site in Pasco County;
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October 22, 1996
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1 number two, the site in Hillsborough County;
2 number three, Broward County and the City of
3 Pembroke Pines; site number four,
4 Palm Beach County; site number five,
5 Hernando County; and site number six, another
6 site in Broward County in the town of Davie.
7 Bearing in mind that all 13 counties have a
8 need for a veterans' nursing home, I recommend
9 to you that the Pasco County site for the second
10 veterans' nursing home for veterans of Florida
11 be approved.
12 In addition to recommending the Pasco site,
13 we request that the Governor and Cabinet approve
14 four issues required by the Agency for
15 Health Care Administration to issue the
16 Certificate of Need to begin construction.
17 Those criteria are: Number one, that the
18 FDVA is authorized to file application for a
19 CON, Certificate of Need; number two, that the
20 Department is authorized to incur the
21 expenditure necessary to accomplish the project;
22 criteria number three, if issued a Certificate
23 of Need, the Department will accomplish the
24 proposed project within the time allowed at or
25 below the cost contained in the application; and
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1 number four, that the Florida Department of
2 Veterans' Affairs will license and operate the
3 facility.
4 So, Governor and members of the Cabinet, I
5 make those recommendations to you, bearing in
6 mind that we are up against a time line of
7 November 4th for submitting our letter to the
8 Agency for Health Care Administration.
9 November 4th is our deadline for that process.
10 At this point, I understand that there are
11 four counties who would like -- who have sent
12 representation -- a delegation to address you,
13 each for a maximum of 10 minutes each.
14 Those representatives are: From
15 Pasco County, heading the delegation is
16 Mr. Fred Harrop, the County Veterans' Service
17 Officer; from Hillsborough County, Commissioner
18 Chris Hart of the County Commission; from
19 Hernando County, Commissioner Ray Lossing; and
20 from Broward County, Senator Howard Foreman.
21 My general counsel, Mr. Frankel, and I will
22 will remain for questions --
23 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes, sir.
24 MR. RAINWATER: -- anything you might need
25 of us --
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1 GOVERNOR CHILES: All right. We want to
2 try to provide this 10 minutes each. We know a
3 lot of people have come up here, and we want to
4 hear from them.
5 We will have to strictly adhere to that so
6 we will have enough members to vote on this.
7 So -- so you'll have to help us police that.
8 MR. RAINWATER: I will do that.
9 GOVERNOR CHILES: Thank you, sir.
10 MR. RAINWATER: With that, I'll introduce
11 Mr. Fred Harrop, County Veterans' Service
12 Officer, Pasco County.
13 (Secretary Mortham exited the room.)
14 MR. HARROP: Governor Chiles, distinguished
15 members of the Cabinet, as Mr. Rainwater said, I
16 am Fred Harrop, Pasco County Veterans' Service
17 Officer, and it was my responsibility to put
18 together this proposal.
19 It is my distinct pleasure to address you
20 this morning concerning the placement of the
21 second veterans' nursing home of Florida.
22 I am joined today by the entire
23 Pasco County Board of County Commissioners:
24 Chairman Ed Collins, Mr. Hap Clark,
25 Ms. Ann Hildebrand, Dr. Pat Mulari, and
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1 Ms. Sylvia Young, who canceled today's
2 Commission meeting so they could come up here to
3 support this very important project.
4 Also in attendance are
5 County Administrator, John Gallagher; State
6 Senator Latvala; State Representative
7 Littlefield in whose district the site lies;
8 State Representative Fasano; County lobbyist
9 Joe Manion; and representatives of numerous
10 veterans, education, business, and civic groups
11 from throughout the county.
12 My brief presentation will focus on why --
13 (Secretary Mortham entered the room.)
14 MR. HARROP: -- Pasco County was rated the
15 best location for the nursing home by the state
16 Site Selection Committee.
17 The first graphic, sir, I will address is
18 the criteria for the number of veterans within
19 the 75-mile radius of the proposed site.
20 In here, we had 14 counties. Within that
21 area, over 538,000 veterans, which was the most
22 of any proposed site, but also significantly,
23 49 percent of those veterans are already age
24 sixty and above, which refers to Mr. Rainwater's
25 contention of the desperate need for the home.
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1 This second graph refers to the criteria
2 established by the State committee concerning
3 the availability of getting to a VA medical
4 center. The site is here. 14.9 miles away is
5 James A. Haley VA Medical Center.
6 Also in conjunction with the health issue,
7 the State also needed to look at the
8 availability of health professionals.
9 In that light, directly across the street
10 from James Haley is the University of
11 South Florida, which has over 19 different
12 medical training programs in their curriculum.
13 Also they -- they also contain a nationally
14 recognized Alzheimer's research center, which is
15 particularly significant since this facility
16 will be able to house Alzheimer's residents.
17 Also in the area, we have 33 other area
18 community colleges and different schools which
19 provide medical training, including
20 Pasco/Hernando Community College, which is just
21 up the road with an outstanding nursing program,
22 as well as a developing allied health faculty.
23 One of the major concerns is the
24 accessibility of the site for the visitors to
25 come. We show here -- here is the location of
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1 the site. It is very easy from the north from
2 I-75. Via State Road 52, it is only 11 miles
3 from I-75.
4 Coming from the south via I-75 and
5 State Road 54, it's just 14 miles going up to
6 U.S. 41.
7 In the projected road improvements,
8 State Road 56, a new interchange, which will cut
9 in half the distance coming from the south.
10 In addition, this shows the numerous
11 housing developments and apartment complexes for
12 the employees to live in.
13 One last point I would like to make on road
14 improvements, U.S. 41, which is going to be the
15 direct link between the VA nursing home and the
16 VA medical center, is currently undergoing
17 construction to six lanes, and that will be
18 completed just 1 mile south of the home by the
19 time the home is completed.
20 This is an aerial view of the site.
21 I can show -- it is basically in this
22 corner here. It is at the intersection of
23 County Road 583 and Parkway Boulevard. It is
24 what we consider a very pristine, 12 acre site.
25 The site is on the corner there, it goes
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1 down, has some wetlands. The entire southern
2 border of the site is an orange grove.
3 The County currently owns the adjacent
4 18 acres to the site, and the only plan right
5 now is that an above ground water tower will be
6 built on that. There are no other construction
7 plans for that.
8 In our continuing quest to provide the
9 residents a peaceful environment, this area is
10 zoned for a maximum of six units per acre, or
11 less.
12 In addition, the site is environmentally
13 clean. The infrastructure is in place, and it
14 is above the floodplain, and it is ready to
15 build at the State's discretion.
16 Finally, this is simply our artist's
17 conception of what the nursing home would look
18 like, sit on the 12 acres.
19 It is because of these features, along with
20 the overwhelming community support with
21 volunteers ready when the doors are open to
22 provide support to these folks, that we call
23 upon you to accept Mr. Rainwater's
24 recommendation and choose Pasco County as the
25 site for the -- Florida's second veterans
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1 nursing home.
2 Again, I'd like to thank you for the
3 opportunity to address you this morning. And if
4 there are no questions, I'd like to introduce
5 now Mr. Ed Collins, the Chairman of our
6 County Commission.
7 GOVERNOR CHILES: Okay.
8 MR. COLLINS: Governor, members of the
9 Cabinet, it's a pleasure to be here today in
10 support of Pasco as the site of the veterans
11 nursing home.
12 Pasco County was rated number one by the
13 selection committee established by the Cabinet
14 using criteria approved by the Cabinet.
15 Pasco County was the long shot underdog, but we
16 pulled together in the spirit of community, and
17 put together a package that ranked Pasco County
18 number one.
19 Pasco County is proud of its effort, proud
20 of our veterans, and proud of the community
21 effort on this project. Since the announcement
22 of Pasco's number one ranking, other counties
23 have tried to undermine the process and the
24 criteria.
25 Governor and Cabinet members, we all
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1 entered this race with the same criteria.
2 Pasco County placed number one.
3 We are a rural county with a pristine site
4 for this project. We will give this project the
5 attention it deserves. It will be a big fish in
6 a little pond.
7 We ask you to do the right thing. We ask
8 you to keep politics out of your decision. We
9 ask you to support the recommendation of the
10 Selection Committee and designate Pasco County
11 as the site for the new veterans' nursing home.
12 And in summary, I'd like to ask our various
13 veterans who came from Pasco County today in
14 support of this project to please stand. We
15 have representatives from Westpack, Disabled
16 Veterans, we have members of the College of
17 Veterans Club, American Legion, Purple Heart,
18 and numerous other organizations.
19 We also have representatives from the
20 Chamber of Commerce of Land O'Lakes.
21 We appreciate your consideration in this
22 matter and look for your support.
23 Thank you very much.
24 GOVERNOR CHILES: Thank you, sir.
25 Thank you all very much for your
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1 attendance. We're glad to have you here.
2 MR. RAINWATER: Thank you, Pasco County.
3 Next we'd like to introduce a member of the
4 County Commission from Hillsborough County,
5 Commissioner Chris Hart.
6 Commissioner.
7 MR. HART: Good morning, Governor Chiles,
8 members of the Cabinet. I'm Chris Hart,
9 County Commissioner, Hillsborough County.
10 It's my privilege to be before you today to
11 represent Hillsborough County, and also to send
12 regrets from our Board, who would rather be
13 here, but they have a land use and zoning
14 meeting, which takes quite a bit of attention.
15 And on double matter, I'm also proud to
16 stand here for the veterans of Tampa Bay. Over
17 this past year, it's been my privilege to chair
18 the regional coalition, our task force for the
19 veterans of Tampa Bay, with the express purpose
20 of bringing home a site to the largest number of
21 veterans that are unserved and underserved in
22 the state of Florida.
23 And by in large, today because we've got
24 representatives from Pinellas, Hillsborough,
25 Pasco, and Hernando Counties, regardless of the
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1 fact that we are all proud that we've got three
2 of the six recommendations there, we are totally
3 united that we believe we're here in the best
4 interest of veterans of Tampa Bay.
5 But let me address a little bit
6 differently. Let me address to you a site, and
7 why I'm here today to say that
8 Hillsborough County is the site I believe you
9 should select.
10 First of all, we're talking about a
11 partnership. We're talking about a partnership
12 from the Veterans' Affairs, from the Federal
13 level, obviously the State level, the University
14 of South Florida Institute on Aging.
15 In fact, Dr. James Mortimer is here to
16 represent the University of South Florida and to
17 address their interest and support of this site,
18 as well as Hillsborough County. And what we
19 plan to do, in an all people's park and life
20 skills center that I'll describe very briefly to
21 you.
22 In our applications, we're asked to
23 identify within a 75-mile radius the number of
24 veterans we would serve. Well, the radius is
25 very helpful to identify the total number of
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1 veterans, but if you don't recognize that they
2 also have to have a means to avail themselves of
3 those services, as well as the caregivers and
4 family members of those veterans to be able to
5 interact with them.
6 So what I've done is, our Metropolitan
7 Planning Organization, who is the only
8 organization in the state of Florida that can
9 certify time distance factors on
10 transportation --
11 (Governor Chiles exited the room.)
12 MR. HART: -- has identified for us two
13 very quick charts I'd like to show you.
14 Now, if I identified them in your packet
15 before you, under tabs 2 and tabs 3. And first,
16 under tab 2, to make it easy to see. Because I
17 know, if you're like me, you're sometimes
18 looking at -- over your glasses.
19 But we're talking about within 90 minutes
20 of our site in Hillsborough County, we've
21 identified that we can bring over 713,000
22 veterans, if, in fact, that was the desire to
23 our site. Because we're talking about a
24 connection, not only to our region, but the
25 state of Florida, and our local transportation
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1 network.
2 That's a particularly important point,
3 because you're talking about Interstate 75;
4 Interstate 4; Interstate 275; obviously U.S. 19;
5 and U.S. 41, among the many connections.
6 If you turn to tab 3, and we take a closer
7 look at the next chart, we're going to describe
8 for you what happens within 45 minutes. And
9 this is particularly important, because
10 Bay Pines facility is located in
11 Pinellas County -- in fact, are 45 minutes away
12 from our site, using any of three or four direct
13 routes from Pinellas County to Hillsborough
14 County to there.
15 As well as from the southern end, or access
16 from MacDill Air Force Base; the military
17 retired veterans there can avail themselves of
18 these services. And we can't forget that during
19 the winter months, particularly between October
20 and March of each year, the Tampa Bay area down
21 through Sarasota swells by over 250,000
22 additional veterans who can use these services
23 as well.
24 And they're often referred to from the
25 MacDill facility to other facilities throughout
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1 our state network.
2 If you would turn now to chart number 4,
3 please.
4 I'd like to first talk about what is unique
5 in our application. It is not only a
6 partnership that we're proposing, but we would
7 like to address the fact that we've got to
8 address intergenerational issues, not just here
9 and now.
10 But we're finding out throughout our nation
11 that if we do not address these now and begin to
12 recognize that we've got to bring young and old
13 together, it's even worse than differences in
14 parties. We're talking about we're going to
15 have to find a better way -- in fact, meet the
16 challenges of our future.
17 What we propose is a site that is -- that
18 is within the Hillsborough County, near the
19 City of Tampa, cities of Temple Terrace, within
20 4 miles of --
21 (Governor Chiles entered the room.)
22 MR. HART: -- University of South Florida.
23 And if you look at the right side of your
24 chart at the top, looking across from the
25 veterans' nursing home is a residential
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1 community with homes valued at over $110,000.
2 If you look at the next site on there, that
3 is actually a view from the site, which is over
4 45 to 50 feet above sea level. It's not in the
5 100 year floodplain, and it is fertile ground.
6 If you look at the bottom right side of
7 your chart, that is, in fact, looking at the
8 site itself. It has, in fact, over many years,
9 been citrus groves.
10 What I'd like to do at this point in time
11 though is ask Dr. Mortimer to come up and
12 address you briefly from the Institute on Aging
13 of why he and Representative -- the University
14 of South Florida believe so strongly that our
15 approach to the intergenerational needs of our
16 future, particularly as we address healthcare
17 issues, is so important today.
18 Dr. Mortimer.
19 DR. MORTIMER: Governor Chiles, members --
20 members of the Cabinet, distinguished guests.
21 My name is James Mortimer. I am Director of the
22 Institute on Aging at the University of
23 South Florida.
24 Until this past January, I was employed by
25 the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs for
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1 21 years; most of that time as the Associate
2 Director of the Geriatric Research, Education,
3 and Clinical Center at the Minneapolis
4 VA Hospital.
5 We were fortunate in Minneapolis to have
6 the state veterans' home located just a 5-minute
7 drive from the VA medical center. And during my
8 tenure there, we developed numerous programs
9 between the medical center and the veterans
10 home, as well as between the veterans home and
11 the University of Minnesota, which was also
12 located less than 15 minutes away.
13 These programs had an enormous positive
14 impact on the quality of care received by
15 veterans -- by residents of the veterans' home.
16 We were able to bring in physicians, nurses,
17 occupational therapists, and others through
18 clinical training and demonstration programs.
19 I doubt very much that these programs would
20 have been in effect had the state veterans' home
21 not been located within close proximity to the
22 university and the VA medical center.
23 And by "close proximity," I mean less than
24 a 15-minute drive. It's remarkable how the
25 interest of both people at universities and
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1 also, I think, Veterans' Administration Medical
2 Center in participating in programs drops off as
3 one goes to, say, a half hour to an hour
4 distance from the facilities.
5 At the University of South Florida, we have
6 one of the most active educational programs in
7 aging in the United States. We offer degrees at
8 every level in gerontology, including the first
9 of its kind Ph.D. program in aging studies.
10 This program is specifically designed to educate
11 the next generation of leaders in aging.
12 It is also important to point out that the
13 University of South Florida is a full service
14 university, with programs in medicine, nursing,
15 public health, and other areas in which care for
16 older persons is of central interest to both
17 students and faculty.
18 I would, therefore, like to add my
19 enthusiastic support to the siting of the new
20 state veterans' home in Tampa, close to the
21 University of South Florida, and to the VA
22 Medical Center.
23 I firmly believe that locating the state
24 veterans' home there would be in the best
25 interest of the veterans who will live in this
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1 facility, and do much to contribute to the
2 quality of care they will receive.
3 Thank you.
4 MR. HART: Thank you, Dr. Mortimer.
5 The University of South Florida is 4 miles
6 away, and less than 10 minutes. We have a
7 shuttle that runs between even Haley's Medical
8 Hospital that's 10 minutes away.
9 And there will be reciprocal relationships,
10 like I say, at the Federal, State, and local
11 level.
12 Let me talk about what is under your tab 5
13 that identifies this site you have before you in
14 this chart.
15 This is representation of what that site
16 would look like. We're talking about the fact
17 that our site is a 27 acre park; that it meets
18 all of the standards of the state of Florida;
19 that, in fact, what we're, in fact, trying to do
20 is find a way that we can include aging
21 citizens, along with physically and mentally
22 challenged people as equal participants in an
23 all people's park and life center.
24 This isn't created anywhere in the state of
25 Florida. We would like to begin it here. We've
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1 got the commitment to do that.
2 One of the things we've learned in
3 Volusia County is that you would perhaps like to
4 have an aquatic pool, because that's a necessary
5 part of the therapy and recreation. We plan to
6 build that.
7 What you see in this site is that we're,
8 in fact, taking all of the costs of all the
9 infrastructure, all the retention ponds, and
10 building an enclosed pool and gymnasium that's
11 accessible by all citizens, not just those who
12 through life's highway, either at birth or
13 through life's experiences, cause them to be
14 there, but so that people of all -- of all ages
15 can come together.
16 And if I might draw your attention to that
17 one picture in the middle, right-hand side of
18 your book, we can't separate the older citizens
19 from their children, their grandchildren, their
20 relatives.
21 And the other side is, they need the older
22 people as well.
23 So what we found out is we've got to find
24 ways to bring our communities together, and we
25 hope that as you review this criteria, you'll
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1 put your personal stamp on this criteria, just
2 not the one that was developed in '91.
3 And if I might refer to tab 6, my quick
4 summary, we exceed all the State's criteria.
5 It's a partnership with an intergenerational
6 model that can serve all of us.
7 Our commitment is clear: $80,000 to the
8 State veterans' nursing home as you see fit,
9 $600,000 we're spending now for the initial site
10 development, and fifteen million dollars from
11 Hillsborough County in the future years to
12 complete its development.
13 Transportation is a key access. And this
14 is for the state of Florida, not just for the
15 region, even though we know it'll dominately
16 serve the Tampa Bay region.
17 And, in fact, we believe we are an
18 intergenerational model, and this is something
19 that you can put your stamp on for the future of
20 all the residents of the state of Florida.
21 We believe that Hillsborough County is,
22 in fact, where the people, the need, and the
23 opportunity all come together.
24 Governor, members of the Cabinet, thank you
25 for your consideration and your time.
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1 GOVERNOR CHILES: Thank you very much. We
2 thank you for your presentation.
3 MR. RAINWATER: Thank you,
4 Commissioner Hart.
5 I believe I saw Commissioner Ray Lossing
6 from Hernando County.
7 There he is. Commissioner Lossing from
8 Hernando County.
9 MR. LOSSING: Governor, Cabinet --
10 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes, sir.
11 MR. LOSSING: -- good morning.
12 Thanks for allowing us to be here. On
13 behalf of Hernando County's presentation, we're
14 all of the above, what you just heard.
15 But there's a little bit more. I'm going
16 to -- I'm going to change roles today, if I
17 might, and become a newspaper boy, and deliver
18 to you tomorrow's newspaper today.
19 While I'm doing that though, I'd like to
20 introduce to you Mr. Rick Michael, who is going
21 to speak on behalf of Hernando County, and
22 Hernando County citizens and its veterans.
23 And if I may, come up and deliver the
24 newspapers?
25 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes, sir.
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1 MR. LOSSING: Thank you, sir.
2 MR. MICHAEL: Tipping may be acceptable.
3 GOVERNOR CHILES: I'm searching through the
4 inside. Does this have the racing results?
5 MR. MICHAEL: We took the racing form out,
6 Governor.
7 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes.
8 MR. MICHAEL: Governor and members of the
9 Cabinet, my name is Rick Michael, and I'm here
10 today, and its my privilege today to represent
11 the citizens of Hernando County, and to
12 emphasize the overwhelming support our citizens
13 and our community has made in bringing together
14 the most comprehensive and cost savings proposal
15 to support your decision on the future site of
16 the veterans nursing home.
17 We've brought our charts, and I think just
18 for time purposes, we'll suspense with that.
19 And the piece that we have up here, you can also
20 see on the front page of the Hernando Today, the
21 Wednesday edition, indicating some of the
22 emphasis on the site that we're proposing.
23 Like most counties, Hernando County is
24 offering a site to be donated at no cost to the
25 the state of Florida.
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October 22, 1996
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1 The ten-and-a-quarter acre site that is
2 located in a safe and peaceful setting is
3 already zoned for a nursing home, and is the
4 number one site chosen by the review committee
5 based upon the actual site reviews that were
6 made earlier in September.
7 This is also a site that could be
8 transferred free of encumbrances or delays
9 today, if necessary. The deed is along with us.
10 Like most other counties, Hernando County
11 is offering hundreds of thousands of dollars in
12 infrastructure improvements. But unlike many
13 other counties, Hernando County is offering
14 these improvements already in place: The water,
15 the sewage, the electric, all in place, and paid
16 for; not subject to any potential delays or
17 necessary reviews or votes to allocate funding,
18 but simply paid for and ready for use.
19 In fact, Hernando County has not only
20 collected, but has in place and in hand, cash
21 and service donations of more than $899,000 to
22 be applied against your cost, your overall cost.
23 These donations are available for the State
24 to apply toward your required project match with
25 the Federal government.
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October 22, 1996
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1 In fact, these monies and services which
2 are offered by Hernando County will lessen the
3 State's estimated cost from 3.8 million to
4 2.9 million, or a reduction in your overall
5 costs of roughly 23 percent.
6 And I think that's almost worth repeating,
7 that we can offer today in place contributions
8 of services connected with the construction, and
9 other matters associated with the facility that
10 will reduce the State's commitment by
11 23 percent.
12 These donations are real. And they're
13 ready to be applied immediately. Many of these
14 donated services are essential and vital to the
15 overall construction of the facility.
16 They include major items such as equipment
17 and labor for site preparation, along with
18 thousands of tons of lime rock and aggregate.
19 The smaller, more --
20 (Commissioner Crawford exited the room.)
21 MR. MICHAEL: -- sophisticated items such
22 as voltage and surge suppression equipment,
23 wiring and installation of communications
24 infrastructure.
25 You may also be interested to know that
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1 we're even going to be installing the cable
2 television network within the facility. And
3 unlike any other proposal, included in your
4 existing -- including the existing facility in
5 Daytona Beach, we're going to even waive the
6 monthly cable charge, not only this year, but
7 every year hereafter.
8 Hernando County has received the support of
9 our citizens, our county citizens, thousands of
10 letters of support have been written. Many of
11 those letters have come to you over recent
12 weeks.
13 Seventeen veterans' organizations and
14 numerous other civic and business groups have
15 pledged resources towards this project. Some of
16 these veterans' groups are among the largest in
17 the state; and in some cases, their membership
18 ranks largest -- within the largest in the
19 country.
20 Many of these veterans have committed not
21 only their time and money, but their future time
22 in supporting their fellow veterans who will be
23 serviced by this new nursing facility --
24 (Commissioner Crawford entered the room.)
25 MR. MICHAEL: -- and for those patients
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DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS' AFFAIRS
October 22, 1996
80
1 that will be, in the near future, our own
2 neighbors.
3 Hernando County has done all these things
4 because we see this future veterans' facility as
5 not only an asset to our community, but a
6 responsibility that our community has to the
7 veteran.
8 We believe that our veterans deserve the
9 best possible location and support system that
10 can be found. That's why Hernando County has
11 selected the only site statewide that is
12 supported by a fully staffed hospital and
13 emergency room within 600 feet of the proposed
14 front door of this new facility.
15 So how will the site be selected?
16 Many have expressed concern during the
17 review process over how the selection or scoring
18 criteria has been conducted, how many ports --
19 points have been awarded for each site, whether
20 a site is within 25 miles of a VA medical
21 center, or by how many veterans live within a
22 specified distance.
23 Does it really matter when the facility
24 will be made available to all the veterans
25 statewide, or does it really matter that the
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October 22, 1996
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1 Hernando County site is just 4 miles outside of
2 an arbitrary radius established during a
3 planning process?
4 We don't think so, and in final judgment,
5 we don't think that you think so either.
6 On October the 2nd, representatives from
7 the various counties met with your individual
8 aides to present each of the sites under
9 consideration here today.
10 As part of the question and answers
11 discussed that day, one of the veteran
12 administration officials, who was responsible
13 and involved in the site review committee was
14 asked the following question: What is the best
15 available site?
16 His answer was simple. At that time, it
17 was Hernando County.
18 In fact, Hernando County scored highest by
19 a wide margin from among the sites reviewed by
20 the various members of the review team on the
21 actual site visits.
22 Also that same emphasis was placed in the
23 report that was later sent to you earlier in the
24 month.
25 Hernando County encourages each of you to
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October 22, 1996
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1 consider the real reason we're here today, to
2 make the best possible decision for the future
3 patients or veterans that will be using this
4 facility.
5 In closing, I'd like to just mention that
6 for me, it's almost a personal issue. My
7 father, like your fathers, or your brothers,
8 your mothers, your sisters, have served our
9 country in the past. In my case, my father
10 served in the United States Navy in the
11 South Pacific on the islands of Guadalcanal,
12 Guam, and the bloody fight at Palau.
13 And I'd like to think that if my father had
14 a need, and after 20 years of disability due to
15 heart attacks, if he was in this facility, I
16 would like to think that in the event of a life
17 threatening situation, that my father wouldn't
18 have to wait for a phone call to be made for an
19 ambulance; that he wouldn't have to wait for the
20 ambulance to arrive in order to pick him up and
21 take him, whether it be 10 minutes or 15 or
22 20 minutes; that he, if necessary, and if I was
23 visiting, that I'd be able to pick my father up
24 and carry him the 600 feet to the emergency
25 room, which is to the front of the -- of the
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October 22, 1996
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1 facility, like he has carried me so many times
2 in the past.
3 Governor, members of the Cabinet, I ask for
4 your consideration in selecting Hernando County
5 as the best possible site, not for the State,
6 but for the veterans who will be using it.
7 Thank you very much.
8 GOVERNOR CHILES: Thank you.
9 MR. MICHAEL: Thank you very much.
10 GOVERNOR CHILES: Thank you, sir.
11 MR. RAINWATER: Thank you very much,
12 Mr. Michael.
13 At this point, I'd like to introduce
14 Senator Howard Foreman, who's representing the
15 Broward County submission.
16 Senator.
17 SENATOR FOREMAN: Thank you, Mr. Rainwater,
18 Attorney Frankel, Governor, ladies and -- lady
19 and gentlemen of the Cabinet.
20 The decision that's before you today is to
21 take the values from these different sites,
22 compiled by the staff on the criteria set forth
23 in the rule, and evaluate it from a practical
24 viewpoint.
25 In other words, take the product of the raw
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October 22, 1996
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1 data and interpret it in such a way that make --
2 that it makes most sense, and has the greatest
3 impact on the public's good.
4 The other part involves accessibility. And
5 that's a very important concept here.
6 Accessibility from various state regions, and
7 whether some of the numbers calculated are
8 already being served by the present facility in
9 Volusia County.
10 It's very illogical to us to have a second
11 VA nursing home in central Florida, which is --
12 part of it, which is already served by the
13 Volusia County site, as opposed to southeastern
14 Florida, or the Florida panhandle.
15 Indeed, the very reason for the continued
16 existence of the Cabinet is its collegial use of
17 discretion and judgment.
18 Let me point out some important facts to
19 you. First of all, Broward County, Florida's
20 second largest county, has the number one
21 veteran population in the state of Florida.
22 Broward County and -- in the three-county
23 area, Broward, Palm Beach, and Dade, ranks
24 first, third, and fourth of the state's veteran
25 population. Matter of fact, those three
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DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS' AFFAIRS
October 22, 1996
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1 counties alone account for 22 percent of the
2 Florida -- of Florida's veteran population.
3 None of the other sites have such a high
4 concentration of veterans as the immediate site
5 area.
6 The nursing home occupancy rates are
7 91 percent in Broward, 90 percent in Dade,
8 90 percent in Palm Beach County.
9 There's an intense demand for quality
10 nursing home beds in the area. Locating the
11 Broward veterans nursing home in Broward County
12 will reduce the impact on demand for beds of
13 veterans that are in other nursing homes.
14 The Broward site will also serve
15 Monroe County, and also serve Collier County.
16 Now, when they prepared the map on the 75-mile
17 radius, ladies and gentlemen, as you can see,
18 of course, nobody lives on a circle. They live
19 in areas -- there are communities close to
20 transportation arteries, roadways, things that
21 they're familiar with.
22 And -- and basically, you know, this is --
23 which is what we basically have here.
24 Monroe County and Collier County,
25 of course, weren't placed in the circle, because
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October 22, 1996
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1 the bulk of the population is here.
2 But where are the people in Monroe County
3 going to go? It's about a 150 mile ride from
4 Miami to Key West, and it's about a 200 mile
5 ride, or a 180 mile ride for most of
6 Broward County to the end of the Keys.
7 Also the Broward County Commission
8 allocated 1 million dollars -- that's 1 million
9 dollars, in their -- in this year's budget for
10 their project.
11 The Pembroke Pines site, there's already a
12 medical facility, has -- already has a medical
13 facility right near it, which is owned by the
14 South Broward Hospital District, and it has --
15 it's in close proximity to the South Broward
16 Hospital District's four hospitals. That it has
17 Memorial, Memorial West, Pembroke Pines
18 Hospital, and the walk-in facility on
19 Douglas Road.
20 It's only -- it's 13.5 miles to the
21 Veterans' Hospital in Miami as the crow flies,
22 but people aren't crows. Of course, they have
23 to get in their car or get in their bus. And
24 it's about 18 miles to the veterans' hospital in
25 Miami, which the criteria was 25 miles.
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October 22, 1996
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1 Partnerships are planned with institutions
2 of higher learning, particularly the University
3 of Miami School of Medicine.
4 Also, this year, Nova Southeast
5 University's allied health school opened up this
6 year. And they're graduating thousands --
7 thousands of healthcare graduates, many of them
8 who could -- who majored in gerontology and can
9 help assist this fine facility.
10 There's easy access from the Volusia County
11 site to Tampa, 135 miles, which according to
12 AAA, 2 hour and 45 minute ride.
13 The Land O'Lakes, 3 hours and 18 minutes.
14 About 158 miles.
15 You know, where are people in Monroe County
16 going to go, where are people in Dade County
17 going to go? Where do they go in Broward,
18 Palm Beach, Martin? You know, that's almost a
19 300 mile ride, and double the time.
20 And, of course, we have a more
21 sophisticated transportation system. And I'm
22 glad Pasco County's improving their road
23 situation. But we have -- in the here and now,
24 we have the facilities, and we have the
25 population.
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October 22, 1996
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1 When you look at this map, there's an
2 overcount of 81,000 veterans in this little red
3 piece over here that could be served by
4 Volusia County.
5 Now, you get a lot of data, just like I do
6 in the State Senate. When you really look at
7 the facts, if you eliminate the double count,
8 and you throw Lee County and Collier County in
9 there, as well as Monroe County, we have more
10 veterans than Pasco County, which by -- in the
11 conglomerate by 7800, and 28,000 more than
12 Hillsborough County.
13 Matter of fact, Lee County -- you have a
14 letter from the President of the combined
15 veterans association in Lee County and
16 Fort Myers that endorsed the Broward County
17 site.
18 Okay. Lady and gentlemen of the Cabinet,
19 people don't live on circles, they live in
20 communities that are connected by roadways.
21 Sometimes they take the bus, sometimes they take
22 a cab, sometimes they could take MetroRail.
23 But they don't live on circles, they live
24 in communities that are connected to each
25 other. And that's how you really have to judge
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October 22, 1996
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1 that: On veteran population, and also the close
2 proximity of how people can get to the veterans'
3 nursing home, how their families will visit.
4 And this is really what the criteria should
5 be. I know you adopted the circle, but the
6 circle is an artificial boundary. The real
7 boundary is the population connected by
8 roadways, and how close it -- how close they are
9 to the major part of the veterans' population.
10 For these reasons, lady and gentlemen of
11 the Cabinet, and your Excellency, we believe the
12 Pembroke Pines site is the best site, bar none.
13 No matter how you slice it. You can use a
14 circle, you could use a trapezoid, but our
15 site's the best.
16 Thank you.
17 GOVERNOR CHILES: Thank you again for your
18 presentation. We appreciate that.
19 MR. RAINWATER: Thank you, Senator.
20 I believe those are the full range of the
21 presenters.
22 We appreciate your consideration this
23 morning. And we would appreciate your favorably
24 considering the Department's recommendation.
25 Thank you.
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1 GOVERNOR CHILES: Thank you, sir.
2 Well, I think -- I just want to compliment
3 the presentations.
4 I have never seen four better
5 presentations. And I think during the -- the
6 time each was presented, I wanted to vote for
7 that site.
8 And I think that goes back to what you
9 said, Mr. Secretary, that all of these are good
10 sites, all of them are literally necessary for
11 Florida.
12 And that, of course, compounds our
13 problem. It is not a question of whether a site
14 meets the criteria or meets the needs. Every
15 one of them do. And we can put one in the
16 Panhandle, and somewhere up there, we need one
17 as well.
18 So we -- if we were getting our fair share
19 for our veterans, we would probably have five or
20 six VA nursing homes. We would need that many.
21 And that's very clear.
22 The problem that we're left with though is
23 that at this stage, we've got one. And we have
24 to make a decision as to what that site is going
25 to be.
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1 TREASURER NELSON: Are we likely to have
2 one for next year?
3 GOVERNOR CHILES: I don't have any idea
4 about that. I think the one good news I know is
5 that Senator Graham and Senator Mack, I think,
6 will be able to get something into the
7 appropriations bill in the continuing resolution
8 that -- and I don't know whether that's
9 permanent or not. But --
10 MR. RAINWATER: The --
11 GOVERNOR CHILES: -- but appear to divide
12 the money -- VA money much more where the
13 veteran was.
14 MR. RAINWATER: That's correct.
15 GOVERNOR CHILES: And that's a battle we've
16 been fighting, as you know, Former Congressman,
17 for many, many years in trying to do that.
18 MR. RAINWATER: There was an amendment on
19 the HUD and Independent Agencies which includes
20 the VA's budget this year --
21 GOVERNOR CHILES: But that would just be a
22 one-year thing, unless it gets changed, right?
23 It would --
24 MR. RAINWATER: No. That is an ongoing --
25 GOVERNOR CHILES: Oh, it is. Good.
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1 MR. RAINWATER: Yes, sir. That is --
2 GOVERNOR CHILES: That's even better.
3 MR. RAINWATER: The VA's required to submit
4 to the Congress a plan to more equitably
5 distribute its healthcare resources in order
6 that veterans in every part of this country have
7 equal access to the VA's healthcare system,
8 which, as all of us veterans realize, that is
9 not the case now.
10 GOVERNOR CHILES: Not in Florida.
11 MR. RAINWATER: As far as the State Nursing
12 Home Program goes, it is a -- it is a
13 year-by-year appropriation issue with the VA.
14 Hopefully it is an ongoing program, but you can
15 never be certain.
16 But you can bet that if it -- if it does go
17 on year after year, we will be in there making
18 submissions for Florida for additional nursing
19 homes.
20 TREASURER NELSON: So there's a chance that
21 we would be taking up a second nursing home site
22 next year.
23 MR. RAINWATER: Absolutely.
24 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Governor, if I
25 could --
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October 22, 1996
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1 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes, sir.
2 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: -- raise a subject.
3 I think, regardless of the outcome of this
4 particular selection process, it was pretty
5 clear, I think, in the presentations that we
6 heard, and in comments that we've heard over the
7 past several weeks, that the section --
8 selection criteria probably should be reviewed.
9 It was established in 1991, and I think it's
10 probably time that we take a look at it.
11 So I would recommend that regardless of the
12 outcome, that the selection criteria be reviewed
13 and presented to the Cabinet in the future, to
14 assist in the selection of what we hope will be
15 a third dedicated nursing home here in the next
16 year or so.
17 MR. RAINWATER: We will do that, sir.
18 GOVERNOR CHILES: I think that's a good
19 suggestion, and we look forward to that taking
20 place.
21 What's your pleasure?
22 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Governor, I move the
23 approval of Pasco County.
24 GOVERNOR CHILES: Is there --
25 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second that motion.
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1 GOVERNOR CHILES: There's a motion and a
2 second on Pasco County.
3 Is there discussion?
4 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Tough vote,
5 Governor.
6 GOVERNOR CHILES: That is a tough vote,
7 yes, sir. This time I hope the Governor doesn't
8 have to vote first.
9 So many as favor the -- the motion will
10 signify by saying aye.
11 THE CABINET: (Aye.)
12 GOVERNOR CHILES: Opposed, no.
13 The ayes have it.
14 (Applause.)
15 (The Department of Veterans' Affairs Agenda
16 was concluded.)
17 *
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
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1 (Treasurer Nelson exited the room.)
2 GOVERNOR CHILES: All right. We have some
3 more business.
4 Let's see. I think we go back to the
5 budget committee -- budget -- or is it
6 Education.
7 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Or Revenue.
8 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Yeah.
9 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yeah. We might as well
10 give them a minute.
11 We'd like to ask our guests to try to hold
12 it down. We have some more business we're
13 trying to conduct.
14 All right, sir. Mr. Fuchs.
15 MR. FUCHS: Good morning, Governor.
16 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes, sir.
17 MR. FUCHS: Secretary Mortham, gentlemen.
18 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: A motion on
19 minutes.
20 GOVERNOR CHILES: Is there a motion and
21 a --
22 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Yes, I --
23 GOVERNOR CHILES: -- and second --
24 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: -- second.
25 GOVERNOR CHILES: -- on the minutes.
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1 So many as favor the motion, signify by
2 saying aye; opposed, no.
3 Minutes adopted.
4 MR. FUCHS: While -- while the room is
5 clearing, I appreciate -- personally appreciate
6 your support of the Davis Productivity Awards
7 this morning.
8 It's my pleasure to advise you that the
9 Department of Revenue had 86 winning submissions
10 this year involving 635 of our employees.
11 That's about 12 or 13 -- 15 percent of our total
12 staff won Davis Productivity Awards this year.
13 GOVERNOR CHILES: That's terrific. We're
14 delighted to hear that. And that's a
15 continuation of the record y'all have been
16 making. And we think that's --
17 MR. FUCHS: I hope that the Legislature
18 sees fit to reward those career service
19 employees next year with maybe some bonuses or
20 performance based incentives.
21 GOVERNOR CHILES: Well, looking at the
22 amount of money that I just heard that was
23 talked about being saved, 100 million in one
24 aspect, 42 million in another, and then numerous
25 1 millions to 400,000 to -- it seems like to me
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1 that the Legislature certainly should consider
2 something like that.
3 We may give them an opportunity.
4 MR. FUCHS: I know I'm preaching to the
5 choir, and this is internal government
6 operations, which doesn't make headlines
7 anywhere in the state.
8 But I think it's important that -- that
9 y'all renew your commitments, and I think
10 everyone has been committed to the idea of --
11 GOVERNOR CHILES: I think if you'll look
12 around, you'll see that most of the press,
13 written or --
14 MR. FUCHS: Gone.
15 GOVERNOR CHILES: -- video has already
16 left. So --
17 MR. FUCHS: Inside.
18 All right. Item 1 is a request for
19 approval of the minutes --
20 GOVERNOR CHILES: They may be listening
21 somewhere on the speaker.
22 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: I see at least one
23 out there.
24 MR. FUCHS: I'm sorry. Item 1 is a request
25 for approval of the minutes of the
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1 September 26 --
2 SECRETARY MORTHAM: I think we did that.
3 MR. FUCHS: -- meeting.
4 GOVERNOR CHILES: That's already been
5 approved.
6 MR. FUCHS: I'm sorry. I could not hear,
7 sir.
8 Item 2 is a request for approval to file
9 with Secretary of State proposed amendments to
10 Rule Chapter 12B-5 regarding Motor Fuels Tax.
11 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
12 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
13 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
14 Without objection, that's approved.
15 MR. FUCHS: Item 3 is request for approval
16 in concept of the Department's proposed
17 legislative package to be submitted to the 1997
18 Legislature.
19 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Governor, I move
20 accepting the legislative package.
21 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: I have a comment, if
22 I may, Governor.
23 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes, sir.
24 Let's see. Is there a second to that?
25 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
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1 GOVERNOR CHILES: Second. Okay.
2 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Over on the Roman
3 numeral III of the item under administrative
4 concepts is a -- in paragraph 2, there's a
5 discussion on limiting refunds on tax
6 overpayments to those less than $25.
7 My first question is: Does that apply
8 for -- also for underpayments of $25?
9 MR. FUCHS: General, the -- the concept
10 refers only to class action lawsuits. We're
11 not -- we're not restricting all refunds nor any
12 other transactions involved.
13 We're simply trying to limit the -- the
14 amounts that can be used to include persons in a
15 class action lawsuit so that we don't have
16 situations where individual taxpayers would be
17 due a refund, let's say, in fractions of a
18 cent. But in the aggregate, the attorneys
19 bringing the class action could receive
20 substantial windfalls.
21 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Then what your
22 legislative package says right now --
23 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Hang up your
24 shingle on this one.
25 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Yes.
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1 What your legislative package says right
2 now where it applies to any -- any overpayment
3 of $25, and does not address class -- just class
4 action, but any overpayment of $25 is not
5 correct. That that will be corrected in your --
6 in your draft to properly reflect what you are
7 talking about?
8 MR. FUCHS: Yes, sir. If it does say that
9 in the materials you've been provided, you have
10 my apologies. This is meant to restrict the
11 refund levels in class action lawsuits only.
12 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: All right. I might
13 also comment to you that if there is a policy
14 adopted of not refunding, for whatever reason,
15 below a certain value above that -- the $1 that
16 the IRS uses today, and what our statute says
17 today, that you're then looking at an abandoned
18 property situation, and we need to address that
19 particular aspect of it.
20 MR. FUCHS: Yes, sir.
21 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Okay.
22 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Governor --
23 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes, ma'am.
24 SECRETARY MORTHAM: -- specifically because
25 of the issues that Mr. Milligan, as well as --
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1 for example, there's one proposal here that
2 would amend and allow the imposition of local
3 option fuel taxes; and then there's another one
4 that talks about dyed -- where is it -- dyed
5 diesel fuel. I mean, I don't know how many of
6 us have studied dyed diesel fuel.
7 But I would be much more comfortable
8 accepting this package, as opposed to approving
9 it. And if we are, in fact, going to have to
10 approve all 18 of these --
11 GOVERNOR CHILES: In fact, Madam Secretary,
12 we literally accept all of these budgets,
13 because I think a long time ago, we tried to --
14 made it very strong on the record that we did
15 not approve them.
16 Most of these budgets, as you know, come
17 in; then I have to introduce the budget after
18 that. So my vote of acceptance does not mean
19 that I have approved their budgets. And I think
20 none of our votes mean that.
21 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Okay. And that
22 includes the legislative package, which is --
23 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes.
24 SECRETARY MORTHAM: -- what this is.
25 Okay. Great.
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1 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes, ma'am.
2 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Thank you.
3 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes, ma'am.
4 MR. FUCHS: I'm sorry, Governor. Did y'all
5 vote on it?
6 GOVERNOR CHILES: No, we have not.
7 So many as favor --
8 Without objection, it's approved.
9 MR. FUCHS: Thank you, sir.
10 GOVERNOR CHILES: Thank you.
11 (The Department of Revenue Agenda was
12 concluded.)
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1 GOVERNOR CHILES: State Board of
2 Education.
3 DR. BEDFORD: Governor Chiles, members of
4 the State Board of Education, good morning.
5 Item 1, assignment of lease from the State
6 Board of Education to the Treasure Coast
7 Agriculture Research Foundation, Incorporated.
8 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
9 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
10 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
11 Without objection, it's approved.
12 DR. BEDFORD: Item 2, request approval for
13 the transfer of title for Wahnish Way on F-A-M-U
14 campus from the State Board of Education to the
15 Board of Trustees.
16 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
17 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Second.
18 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
19 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
20 Without objection, it's approved.
21 DR. BEDFORD: Item 3, proposed contract for
22 the development, production, and printing of new
23 versions of the Florida College Entrance Level
24 Placement Test.
25 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
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1 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
2 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
3 Without objection, it's approved.
4 DR. BEDFORD: Item 4, update on the Florida
5 Comprehensive Assessment Test.
6 At this time, we had planned a 10-minute
7 presentation. In the interest of time, we're
8 going to have Tom come up here, a very short
9 presentation, much less than 10 minutes.
10 Tom, if you would -- we want you aware of
11 what's going on and where we are. That's --
12 GOVERNOR CHILES: All right, sir.
13 MR. FISHER: Governor, members of the
14 Cabinet, I'm Thomas Fisher. I'm Director of
15 Testing for the state.
16 In your briefing package, you have copies
17 of a handout. I'm not going to take time now to
18 go through each and every page. We can do that
19 later at your pleasure, if you wish. I do want
20 to highlight a few things.
21 So if you'll page along with me very
22 quickly.
23 On page 2, you'll see that -- our calendar
24 indicating what we have done thus far.
25 Basically we've developed over 1200 items, and
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1 are busy doing the final reviews on those test
2 questions at this time.
3 Page 3 shows the overall design for the
4 assessment. I won't take time to repeat that.
5 Page 4 and 5 taken together give you an
6 idea of what this test is going to look like.
7 Basically it's going to be a mixture of
8 test items: Multiple choice, gridded response,
9 short response, extended response items. And I
10 have some samples for you.
11 If you'll page to 6, you'll see an example
12 in mathematics of a typical kind of multiple
13 choice question, except that this measures
14 geometry, which we have previously not put in
15 our minimum competency test.
16 Remember that this new test, FCAT, the
17 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, is
18 measuring high standards. And you'll see that
19 in these test questions.
20 On page 7, you see a sample mathematics
21 question at grade 8 dealing with metric
22 measurement.
23 In page 8, you see a question that can best
24 be solved with use of a handheld calculator,
25 which we will be providing for students at
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1 grades 8 and 10.
2 You'll also notice that this example is
3 what we call a gridded response.
4 Page 9 and page 10 are much more
5 sophisticated test questions involving algebra
6 and geometry.
7 In reading, skipping over to pages 12, 13,
8 and 14, you can see the kinds of questions we
9 will have in which a student actually has to
10 write a response to a reading question.
11 These will be hand scored by teams of
12 readers, and should provide very useful
13 information to us.
14 Skipping over to pages 16 and 17, you can
15 see the kind of score reports we're going to
16 produce with this new assessment, including
17 proficiency levels that will be defined at a
18 point in the future.
19 The work to be accomplished before the
20 conclusion of the contract is shown on page 20.
21 We are at this point on schedule, and we will be
22 conducting during February -- excuse me --
23 during March our field test, and then the actual
24 administration will occur in January, February
25 of 1998.
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1 So we are on schedule, things are moving
2 very quickly. And we will be available at your
3 convenience for further discussion, as might be
4 desirable.
5 Thank you.
6 DR. BEDFORD: Thank you, Tom.
7 Tom waited to -- and really wanted to get
8 up here with the slides and go about a half
9 hour, but you didn't need that today.
10 So Item 4 is just a presentation for
11 information.
12 Item 5 --
13 GOVERNOR CHILES: Was there a motion on
14 Item 4?
15 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Don't need one.
16 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Un--
17 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Accepted.
18 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved -- yeah.
19 Moved and seconded.
20 Without objection, that's approved then.
21 DR. BEDFORD: Item 5, adoption of the
22 seventh supplemental authorizing resolution
23 authorizing the issuance of not exceeding a
24 hundred and eighty-nine million eight hundred
25 and forty thousand dollars State of Florida full
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1 faith and credit State Board of Education
2 Capital Outlay Bonds.
3 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
4 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Second.
5 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
6 Without objection, it's approved.
7 DR. BEDFORD: Item 6 is an amendment to
8 Rule 6A-4.002, General Provisions.
9 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
10 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Second.
11 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
12 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
13 Without objection, it's approved.
14 DR. BEDFORD: Item 7 is an amendment to
15 Rule 6A-4.006. We wish to withdraw.
16 If we could have a motion to withdraw.
17 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move to withdraw.
18 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Second.
19 GOVERNOR CHILES: Motion and seconded.
20 Without objection, it's withdrawn.
21 DR. BEDFORD: Item 8 is a new rule,
22 6A-4.01761, we would also like to withdraw this
23 rule.
24 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move withdrawal.
25 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Second.
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1 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
2 Without objection, it's withdrawn.
3 DR. BEDFORD: Item 9, amendment to
4 Rule 6A-4.035.
5 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
6 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and --
7 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Second.
8 GOVERNOR CHILES: -- seconded.
9 Without objection, it's approved.
10 DR. BEDFORD: Item 10, an amendment to
11 Rule 6A-4.060.
12 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
13 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
14 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
15 Without objection, that's approved.
16 DR. BEDFORD: Item 11, State Board of
17 Community College amendment to Rule 6A-14.054,
18 Student Fees.
19 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
20 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
21 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
22 Without objection, it's approved.
23 DR. BEDFORD: Item 12, Community College.
24 Amendment to Rule 6A-14.072.
25 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
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1 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
2 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
3 Without objection, it's approved.
4 DR. BEDFORD: Item 13, appointment of
5 Gerald V. Mason to the Chipola Junior College
6 District Board of Trustees.
7 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
8 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
9 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
10 Without objection, it's approved.
11 DR. BEDFORD: Item 14, appointment of
12 Antoinette L. Goodman to the Pensacola Junior
13 College District Board of Trustees.
14 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
15 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
16 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
17 Without objection, it's approved.
18 DR. BEDFORD: Item 15, appointment of
19 Maria Shelton and reappointment of James Kirk to
20 the Postsecondary Education Planning Commission.
21 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
22 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
23 DR. BEDFORD: Item 16, 17, and --
24 GOVERNOR CHILES: Approv--
25 Without objection, that's approved.
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1 DR. BEDFORD: I'm sorry.
2 Items 16, 17, and 18 are good cause items.
3 Item 16, appointment of Martha E. Barrett
4 to the Florida Community College at Jacksonville
5 District Board of Trustees.
6 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
7 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
8 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
9 Without objection, it's approved.
10 DR. BEDFORD: Item 17, appointment of
11 Peggy J. Brice to the State Board of Community
12 Colleges.
13 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
14 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
15 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
16 Without objection, that's approved.
17 DR. BEDFORD: Item 18, the appointment of
18 Robert A. Bryan as a member to the Postsecondary
19 Education Planning Commission.
20 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
21 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: And second.
22 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
23 Without objection, that's approved.
24 DR. BEDFORD: Thank you.
25 GOVERNOR CHILES: All right.
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1 (The State Board of Education Agenda was
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1 GOVERNOR CHILES: Now we'll go back to
2 Trustees.
3 MS. WETHERELL: Item 1 are minutes.
4 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
5 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
6 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Second.
7 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
8 Without objection, they're approved.
9 MS. WETHERELL: Substitute Item 2 is
10 modification of submerged land lease and
11 severance.
12 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval, subject
13 to special lease conditions.
14 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
15 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded
16 subject to special lease --
17 Without objection, it's approved.
18 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Governor, I
19 vote no on this item.
20 GOVERNOR CHILES: Okay.
21 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: The -- I'm
22 opposed to -- if I could just say a couple words
23 quickly -- that I'm opposed to a 25-year lease
24 in this particular case.
25 I'm also very concerned about what we
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1 charge for our lease fees. We contacted the
2 applicant, and he says on average, he'll get
3 about $1,000 per month per vessel, which would
4 be over 50 of them. These are very, very large
5 vessels. And that's only a 50 foot one.
6 And we go by there, you'll probably see a
7 lot of 100 foot ones in there, which would
8 probably be double that.
9 We only receive about 7 percent on this, a
10 few cents per foot. And also, he gets a
11 30 percent discount because it is on a first
12 come, first serve basis.
13 I'm concerned about the whole issue of
14 the -- of what we're charging; and also on the
15 issue of first come, first serve. And what I'm
16 understanding throughout the state, what first
17 come, first serve means, whoever signs the lease
18 first, not whoever gets their vessel there
19 first.
20 So I think that we should readdress
21 something, and I think that the Secretary is,
22 in fact, readdressing some of these issues.
23 MS. WETHERELL: Yeah. Rule 18, 20, and 21
24 are submerged land rules, and they're under
25 review now and under development for revision.
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1 And so they'll be coming back to you
2 hopefully this year. Those issues you brought
3 up have been addressed by the Cabinet in the
4 past, and so this is the policy of the Cabinet
5 at this time.
6 On the 7 percent, the rule does provide now
7 that the lease fee shall be 7 percent of the
8 rental value -- rental value from its wet slip
9 rental area, or the base fee, whichever is
10 greater.
11 And the base fee being the -- that the
12 10 cents -- 10.7 cents a square foot. So at the
13 end of the year, we're able to readjust that.
14 And whichever, you know, is greater is the one
15 that we're able to charge.
16 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Well, this
17 thing is going to 25 year lease, Governor. I'm
18 very concerned. He wants 25 years, not building
19 it all out now, he just wants to reserve it so
20 for the future, he'll be able to do that. And I
21 have no idea where -- were his competitors
22 contacted, next-door neighbors contacted? This
23 is a renewal, and not really a new lease.
24 So was anybody even contacted in the area?
25 MS. WETHERELL: I don't know.
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1 Jeremy Craft.
2 MR. CRAFT: Jeremy Craft with DEP.
3 Modifications of leases by rule are not
4 required to be noticed.
5 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Uh-hum.
6 MR. CRAFT: But he is fully within the
7 riparian area in front of his property. No
8 other landowner on either side would have access
9 to that property.
10 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Okay.
11 MS. WETHERELL: Thank you.
12 GOVERNOR CHILES: All right.
13 MS. WETHERELL: Okay. I don't think
14 there's been a vote, has there?
15 GOVERNOR CHILES: That one's been voted on.
16 MS. WETHERELL: Okay. We're having trouble
17 with votes today, aren't we?
18 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes, ma'am.
19 MS. WETHERELL: Item 3 is a 50-year
20 easement.
21 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
22 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
23 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
24 Without objection, it's approved.
25 MS. WETHERELL: Item 4 --
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1 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Governor --
2 GOVERNOR CHILES: Yes, sir.
3 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: -- I might note that
4 I understand that we needed five votes on that
5 particular item, so that was, in fact, not
6 approved on that lease.
7 GOVERNOR CHILES: Oh, on Item 2?
8 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: I'd like to
9 see them come back, Governor, with a -- not a
10 25-year, but something like -- I think setting a
11 policy for somebody on 25 years is going to be
12 hard for us now to start saying five years on
13 one person, and --
14 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Well, I have a
15 little problem with addressing what we should be
16 looking at in the future, certainly with this
17 particular issue, with this particular lease
18 request.
19 I agree with you that we should be looking
20 at the policy. But the existing policy allows
21 for -- for this lease to be approved, and
22 I think we ought to operate under existing
23 policy until we change it.
24 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Yeah. And I
25 am, Governor. I just don't think a 25-year
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1 lease is --
2 GOVERNOR CHILES: We -- you know, it's
3 clear we don't have the votes. And I would just
4 say that I think we'd be better to defer this.
5 And --
6 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: I have no
7 problem doing that.
8 GOVERNOR CHILES: -- then have some
9 discussion, and --
10 MS. WETHERELL: Would you be willing -- the
11 applicant is here. Would you be willing to hear
12 from him for --
13 GOVERNOR CHILES: I think they might -- if
14 we're going to defer it, they might rather speak
15 when they come -- come back.
16 MS. WETHERELL: Okay.
17 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: I think he's
18 much better off when there's a couple more votes
19 up here.
20 MS. WETHERELL: All right. So we're
21 deferring Substitute Item --
22 GOVERNOR CHILES: We're deferring it.
23 Yes, ma'am.
24 Without objection. We're --
25 MS. WETHERELL: Okay. Item 3, a 50-year
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1 easement --
2 GOVERNOR CHILES: So we're going to show
3 that that vote did not take place; or if it did,
4 it didn't, so we just --
5 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Yeah.
6 GOVERNOR CHILES: -- deferred the item.
7 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Okay.
8 GOVERNOR CHILES: You'll clean that all up.
9 Thank you.
10 MS. WETHERELL: Roberts Rules.
11 Item 3, a 50-year easement.
12 GOVERNOR CHILES: Let's see. We had a
13 motion and a second on that.
14 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Right.
15 GOVERNOR CHILES: Without objection, that's
16 approved.
17 MS. WETHERELL: Item 4, reaffirmation of
18 the Save Our Coast Priority List and a purchase
19 agreement; an option agreement for
20 Hutchinson Island Green Turtle Beach; and a
21 waiver of survey.
22 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
23 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
24 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
25 Without objection, that's approved.
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1 MS. WETHERELL: Item 5 is a purchase
2 agreement for the Department of Agriculture.
3 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
4 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
5 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
6 Without objection, it's approved.
7 MS. WETHERELL: Item 6, four purchase
8 agreements for Belle Meade CARL project and a
9 waiver of survey.
10 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
11 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
12 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
13 Without objection, it's approved.
14 MS. WETHERELL: Substitute Item 7,
15 authorization to acquire 50 percent interest in
16 Sebastian Creek from St. Johns Water Management
17 District.
18 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
19 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
20 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
21 Without objection, it's approved.
22 MS. WETHERELL: Item 8, two option
23 agreements for Florida Keys Ecosystem Project,
24 and designation of the Game and Fish Commission
25 as the managing agency.
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1 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
2 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
3 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
4 Without objection, it's approved.
5 MS. WETHERELL: Substitute Item 9 is
6 authorization to acquire the Etoniah/Cross
7 Florida Greenway project from St. Johns Water
8 Management District.
9 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
10 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
11 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
12 Without objection, it's approved.
13 MS. WETHERELL: Item 10 is a surplus land
14 sale of four parcels of the Cross Florida
15 Greenways area.
16 SECRETARY MORTHAM: Move approval.
17 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: Second.
18 GOVERNOR CHILES: Moved and seconded.
19 Without objection, it's approved.
20 MS. WETHERELL: And Substitute Item 11 has
21 been voted on.
22 GOVERNOR CHILES: All right.
23 MS. WETHERELL: Thank you.
24 GOVERNOR CHILES: Thank you.
25 COMMISSIONER CRAWFORD: That's it.
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1 GOVERNOR CHILES: That's it.
2 (The Board of Trustees of the Internal
3 Improvement Trust Fund Agenda was concluded.)
4 *
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6 12:45 p.m.)
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1 CERTIFICATE OF REPORTER
2
3
4 STATE OF FLORIDA:
5 COUNTY OF LEON:
6 I, LAURIE L. GILBERT, do hereby certify that
7 the foregoing proceedings were taken before me at the
8 time and place therein designated; that my shorthand
9 notes were thereafter translated; and the foregoing
10 pages numbered 1 through 122 are a true and correct
11 record of the aforesaid proceedings.
12 I FURTHER CERTIFY that I am not a relative,
13 employee, attorney or counsel of any of the parties,
14 nor relative or employee of such attorney or counsel,
15 or financially interested in the foregoing action.
16 DATED THIS 30TH day of OCTOBER, 1996.
17
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19 LAURIE L. GILBERT, RPR, CCR
100 Salem Court
20 Tallahassee, Florida 32301
(904) 878-2221
21 1-800/934-9090
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