The Seminole County Board of County Com missioners held their second meeting of the year on January 28, discussing key topics including in vestment strategies, water and wastewater infra structure plans, code enforcement updates and the potential expansion of truck parking regulations.
The commission began their meeting at 9:30 a.m. by announcing the Seminole County Veteran of the Month, Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam Zavardino, U.S. Navy.
“His efforts have been recognized for the organ ization of community outreach events including fundraiser events honoring first responders in Seminole County,” Commissioner Andria Herr said. “He is a proactive advocate for veterans ben efits working closely with the Seminole County veteran services office to better the lives of local veterans of all ages.”
After posing for a photo with the commission ers, Zavardino addressed the commission by thanking them for the award and expressed grati tude to his family, the Seminole County commu nity and organizations like the VFW and American Legion.
Senior Portfolio Manager Scott McIntyre then presented the County Investment Advisor Report to the commission.
McIntyre suggested to the board the plan to lock-in on current investments as he expects Presi dent Trump will appoint another Federal Reserve chairman that will be prone to cut rates in compar ison to current Chairman Jerome Powell.
“We’ve made recommendations to diversify in the past, this recommendation is to me to lock in longer in expectation of lower rates,” McIntyre said. “Maybe not three months from now but cer tainly within the next year or 18 months and we want to protect as much of the income as we can.”
During their post-presentation discussion, Com missioner Lee Constatine inquired about investing in Israeli bonds after attending a meeting with Florida Trust.
“Israel is one of our biggest supporters and vice versa,” Constantine said. “They’re solid and from something that I’m looking at I don’t see it as a political thing. You know, if it was North Korea, yes, if it was Iran, yes.”
McIntyre said the county’s investment policy would need to be adjusted in order to add the bonds to their portfolio.
Commissioner Amy Lockhart agreed to explore the option, however, the rest of the commission disagreed.
“It is a country at war, leave the politics out of it,” Herr said. “Actually investing in Israel because they’re an ally is a political investment. So I just want you to know where my head is. This is the citizen’s money and I wouldn’t put my money there and I wouldn’t put the citizens money there.”
The commission unanimously approved McIn tyre’s recommended plan.
The commission then moved on to their agenda items. County Manager Darren Gray pulled con sent item 21, which would approve awarding the Oxford Road Drainage and Sidewalk Project to Mercon Construction Co. for $6.9 million and allow the Purchasing & Contracts Division to final ize the agreement. He also announced that the ap plicant of item 33, a proposal to change the land use and zoning for a property between Bernini Way and Lake Forest Blvd for a self-storage facil ity, withdrew their application.
After none of the commissioners requested to pull any item and no public comments were made, the commission unanimously passed all the items from their consent agenda with the exemption of item 21.
Interim Utilities Director Johnny Edwards and staff then presented the Utilities Master Plan to the commission, focused on future water and wastewater treatment needs.
The proposed plan suggested that the Southeast Regional water treatment plant may need to be ex panded by the early 2040s. Testing is underway to de termine if existing plants can meet new drinking water standards that can detect contaminants such as polyfluoroalkyl substances. They also plan to replace the ozone equipment that is over 12 years old at the Markham, Country Club and Southeast and Indian Hills water treatment plants and update their super visory control and data acquisition, or SCADA, equipment.
SCADA updates will also be required for wastewater treat ment and the Yankee Lake Water Reclamation Facility in Sanford will require expansion in the next 20 years. Surface water treatment will also un dergo potential process im provements and renewal and replacement needs. Water and wastewater transmission will be expanded to serve new de velopments in the southeast and northeast of the county. Wastewater will be diverted to Yankee Lake to limit expansion needs and the county plans to make improvements to their system to reduce the risk of sewage releases.
The plan also called for con struction of reclaimed retrofit projects in the northwest and to evaluate opportunities to ex pand the reclaim transmission in the southeast. All transmis sion projects will pursue a “dig once” policy and replace aging pipes when warranted.
The final master plan report will be released by September 2025.
Commissioner Bob Dallari also requested it to address re gional water usage impacts, Senate Bill 552’s relevance to springs protection, utility re source allocation, expansion in Northwest Seminole County and environmental considera tions at Yankee Lake.
Compliance Coordinator Mike Rhodes then presented the Code Enforcement “Kick off” presentation, presenting a plan to move code enforcement operations to the BCC by Octo ber 1.
The plan will include recruit ing a division manager, setting up infrastructure for staff, an IT platform and a budget. Staff will include a division manager, field supervisor, four code en forcement officers and adminis trative support. The expected budget is about $1 million, ac cording to Rhodes.
Chairman Jay Zembower said he doesn’t believe $1 mil lion will be the actual cost, pre dicting it to be higher. The chairman, in agreement with Herr, said he’d like to see where the four code enforcement offi cers will overlap across the five districts.
The commission resumed their meeting at 1:30 p.m. with a presentation to consider an ordinance to amend truck park ing regulations in the traffic chapter of the Seminole County Code to be consistent with Land Development Code truck parking.
Amending the code would allow for an increase in the gross vehicle weight in residen tial zones to increase from two tons to 14,000 pounds.
After discussion, the com mission approved the item with the addition of including the gross vehicle weight rating as published by the vehicle manu facturer.
County Attorney Kate La torre reported that the auction the commission voted to par take in at the January 14 meet ing to purchase property for a drainage improvement project was successful.
Before the commissioner re ports, the commission unani mously passed a motion from Zembower to reconsider the va cating of the Panther Street right-of-way from the January 14 meeting.
During the commissioners’ reports, Herr gave a shoutout to the county’s IT training team for teaching the in-person excel 201 class for county employees for free. She also suggested that the county take proactive meas ures for expedited permitting in case of emergencies in light of the recent California fires.
Dallari made the motion to reappoint Sean Barth to the Value Adjustment Board. He also shouted out Emergency Manager Alan Harris and Com munity Services Director Alli son Thall, thanking them for their hard work.
“I know with this cold weather there's been a lot of is sues out there with the individ uals that need to find either shelter or a warm place,” Dal lari said.
Constantine announced in his report dates of the Florida Association of Counties Tech Summit, the Seminole County Arts Council’s Taste of the Arts Gala in Casselberry, the Greek Orthodox Cathedral’s table ex traordinaire fundraiser and the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association’s State of Hospitality and Tourism.
Lockhart acknowledged the success of the Central Florida Scottish Highland Games, sug gesting that the county man ager will be looking into the economic impact of the games. She also said that during the Seminole County Public Schools and Seminole State Col lege work session, she brought up the opportunity to explore micro-transit options for dual enrolled students.
The commission voted to commit the recommended $500,000 contribution to the PD&E study for the SunRail Sunshine Corridor project after Lockhart requested its approval after she attended the recent Central Florida Commuter Rail Commission meeting.
“I just figured at this point, Seminole County needs to step up so that we are a part of the contributed column,” Lockhart said. “And maybe through pos itive peer pressure it will move others.”
According to Senior Assis tant County Attorney Brijesh Patel, Orange County, the City of Orlando and private sector donors, such as Universal, have already committed to contribut ing. The remaining uncommit ted partners include Osceola and Volusia counties.
Zembower proposed reap pointments for the Committee on Aging board members dur ing his report, including Veter ans Interest Paul Bertram, Faith Based Father John Bluett, Local Area Agency on Aging Karla Radka and Elder Law Repre sentative Shannon Campbell.
The chairman also an nounced that Governor Ron DeSantis’ office requested that the county reach out to their legislators to share their stance in regards to the proposed im migration law that would elect the Commissioner of Agricul ture Wilton Simpson as the state’s chief immigration officer.
Zembower also reported at Bluett’s request to meet with charities to discuss their contri butions to address homeless ness in the county. The symposium on homelessness will be on behalf of the chair man’s office, not the BCC.
Christine Depre and staff at the anti-human trafficking or ganization One More Child took the stand to make a public comment to spread awareness of human trafficking. The team also requested contacts from the board, specifically in Seminole County Schools.
Altamonte Springs resident Daniel Sherman also took the stand to express concerns re garding the community, specifi cally the library systems and representation for underrepre sented groups.
“When I give a donation dol lar to the library, where does the money go,” Sherman said. “Nobody knows, and that's an issue when the library needs money and the library needs better equipment, better com puters."
