Date:
May 21, 2009
Meeting:
County Commission meeting – Regular -- Columbia
County, FL
Subject:
Agenda Item:
Stephen Bailey, Chairman
Florida Crown Workforce Board Update
Participants:
COM
BAILEY:
Mr. Stephen Bailey – Chairman
COM WILLIAMS:
Mr. Ronald Williams – Dist. 1
COM WEAVER:
Mr. Dewey Weaver – Dist. 2
COM DUPREE:
Mr. Jody DuPree – Dist. 3
COM FRISINA:
Ms. Scarlet Frisina – Dist. 4
ATNY FEAGLE:
Mr. Marlin Feagle – County Attorney
Transcript
prepared by:
Columbia
County Observer
*********************************************
--- 131 ---
COM BAILEY:
Next on the agenda is the Florida Crown Workforce
Board withdrawal update from me. So that I make sure
that I don’t miss anything I have prepared something I’m
going to read to the Board and Madam Clerk I will supply
this to you and the end.
On
Wednesday, May 13, 2006[9], Greg Stewart, attorney with
Nabors, Giblin and Nickerson; County Manager Dale
Williams and I met with Larry Thompson, who is the
chairman of Florida Crown Workforce Board, John
Chastain, the Executive Director of Florida Crown Force,
and Florida Crown’s Attorney Tom Brown.
We met to
discuss issues between both of the entities. Due to the
number if issues that existed, it was the county's
decision to select one area for discussion. The area
chosen was the Consortium and the issues surrounding its
functions. All parties present agreed that progress was
made and that a dialogue should continue.
As you
are aware, Columbia County approved a resolution to
withdraw from Florida Crown.
Mr.
Thompson has asked that we withdraw the resolution based
on a good faith effort that we will resolve all the
issues at hand. Keep in mind that the county can also
adopt a new resolution by giving a 30 day's notice of
the cancellation.
And that is basically where we’re at. So at this
time for the update I am bringing to the board Mr.
Thompson’s request that we withdraw our resolution based
on the good faith effort.
Is there any questions from the
board?
--- 152 ---
COM WEAVER:
Our interlocal agreement expires June 30th
anyway?
COM BAILEY:
That is correct. Our interlocal agreement expires
June 30th.
COM WEAVER:
I personally think that we should withdraw it as
a good faith effort because we still in 45 days, the
agreement runs out anyway and we’ve go to act on a new
interlocal at that time. If we haven’t seen any progress
in the next 45 days we can always choose not to do a new
interlocal. With that said, I’ll move that we withdraw
that May 15th deadline.
COM WILLIAMS:
May 15th?
COM WEAVER:
I think May 15th was the deadline date for that
withdrawal, for notice. Is that correct?
COM BAILEY:
That’s correct. That’s when the resolution went
into effect. June 1st was the, er June 30th is the
~~unintelligible~~.
COM FRISINA:
Second
COM BAILEY:
We have a motion. We have a second.
COM WEAVER:
Mr. Feagle is that the correct form.
ATNY FEAGLE:
That the correct form, but I’m checking to see if
this interlocal actually expires June 30th. It provides
as you said for a thirty day notice of cancellation, but
this says the agreement will have duration equal to the
period that the RWB designations remain in effect for
the geographical area. So, I don’t have all of the
information with me tonight, cause I didn’t know that
would be a question, but I’m not so sure that it
automatically expires June the thirtieth. That’s the
point I’m making.
COM WEAVER:
OK. I’ll amend that motion to say forty five
days. If significant progress in forty five days on our
concerns with the interlocal and how it deals with the
consortium.
COM BAILEY:
OK. Can I get you to help us clarify?
--- 174 ---
COM WEAVER:
The amendment is to rescind the notice of
withdrawal – and -- we
will take action on June the thirtieth. –
~~unintelligible~~ : OK
-- OK
COM WEAVER:
forty five days from the fifteenth period, unless
we see significant advances to address our concerns. And
that’s concerns dealing with the consortium.
COM BAILEY:
Is there a second?
COM FRISINA:
Second.
COM BAILEY:
I have a motion and a second.
ATNY FEAGLE:
Mr. Chairman, let me ask for clarification in
case I’m ~~unintelligible~~ Commissioner are you saying
that the withdrawal will be effective June 30th now
unless some action is taken.
COM WEAVER:
No sir. I’m saying we’ll rescind the May 15th
notice of termination and we will readdress it in a
letter June 30th.
ATNY FEAGLE:
OK
COM WEAVER:
If we don’t have any kind of significant --
addressing or our concerns about the consortium and how
it’s run by June 30th, we’ll re address it and whether
that is a thirty day notice to withdraw or whatever the
case might be, but we will re address it by June, as
soon after June thirtieth as we
can.
ATNY FEAGLE:
OK
COM WEAVER:
That gives forty-five days to make some kind of
progress.
MARLIN FEAGLE:
So your motion doesn’t contain any automatic with
drawl date.
COM WEAVER:
No sir.
MARLIN FEAGLE:
Thank you.
COM WEAVER:
Your welcome.
COM WILLIAMS:
It does not do what?
--- 195 ---
COM WEAVER:
It doesn’t contain any automatic withdrawal date.
After June 30th then we can again give thirty days
notice of termination if we don’t see significant
improvement.
COM BAILEY:
Commissioner DuPree
COM DUPREE:
Yes sir. I’m not going to be able to support
this. Let me tell you why. I understand that the whole
reason that Mr. Thompson asked for this was to show some
good faith effort toward us resolving this Florida Crown
conflict. I think that this Board has done more than
that already because this same Board that requested a
new Florida Crown, as a Board, and then we allow a
meeting to take place without the board, in order to
resolve this conflict. As a result of that to, I
understand that the executive director of Florida Crown
didn’t want to have a meeting at the county building.
They had to move it to the city or somewhere, cause he
didn’t want to be at the county.
With that said, I also understand coming out of
that meetin that Columbia County, or the attorney’s for
Columbia County, are preparing a new interlocal
agreement to try to get it ratified with Florida Crown,
to meet some the concerns that we have as a board to
protect this county.
Now, the way I understand the interlocal
agreement, it don’t expire. As long as region 7 exits,
the interlocal exists, unless you change it and that
would take the Consortium, in order to make that happen.
I don’t feel that’s going to happen and I know that the
interlocal that exists today, I cannot support what’s
going on with Florida Crown, with the interlocal as it
is written.
So, I don’t see, for starters, I don’t see where
it benefits the citizens of Columbia County, what so
ever, for us to show a good faith effort by rescinding
something we’ve already done, because its not going to
have any sort of effect to it. So, in my opinion, the
way I feel is that the motions that was been taken, as
far as the meetings and the dialogue and the steps that
have been take today, to try to resolve the issues that
this board has in assuring that the residents of
Columbia County are properly administered to Florida
Crown, I think have already been taken. And I don’t
think that this is going to benefit us what so ever in
trying to resolve this conflict.
COM BAILEY:
First off let me correct one thing. The
Consortium does not -- the Consortium is one member from
each of the four counties. We do not approve the
interlocal agreement. The interlocal agreement goes back
to each one of the full boards of county commissioners.
Is that correct Mr. Feagle?
ATNY FEAGLE:
Well yes, that’s my understanding.
COM BAILEY:
It goes back to each board.
COM DUPREE:
I think the point I am trying to make by that
though, in order for the interlocal to change, the
consortium has to be the ones to instigate the change in
the interlocal. Now the interlocal itself is going to be
approved by the four boards of region 7 but no
independent board in the region can -- just institute
this change in the interlocal. So, if I understand it
right, I know that we would approve it in its final
print, but in order to get it to a final print, it would
have to be begun inside of the organization of Florida
Crown. Either way, the interlocal agreement will not
expire on June 30th, it will continue right on. So at
least in the chronic position that we’re in right now,
we know that there is no
~~unintelligible~~ being prepared that we can
present to the other boards in region 7 for their input
into its content.
--- 249 ---
COM BAILEY:
Commissioner Williams.
COM WILLIAMS:
I – I -- do not feel at this time that we should,
in a sense, be withdrawing the interlocal, but I believe
if we can do something in good faith and get some
movement that we should sometime. A group, a committee
can work together to come to a resolution quicker than a
entire board can, in a sense of speaking. One of the
things I asked at during the briefing that we wasn’t
going to be sitting on this darn thing. We are going to
get a resolution. We are going to make dialogue with the
other county commissioners to express our concerns that
we feel that that the way that the interlocal s written
out is improper and that we need to address it to make
sure that we straighten it out. I understand that there
will be a meeting with the whole board. Going ask for a
meeting with the whole board of the counties instead of
the member that represent that county.
And here again, if I got to go to Oak, I just
take US 90 and go. I don’t mind going all the way up to
White Springs and hit 129, I mean 136 and to the back
way. 236 and go the back way -- before you get to Live
Oak. But I don’t want to wait a long time to do that.
Now if there is not significant movement by June
30th, I’m ready to go. I’m just tired of bothering with
it. And I got a problem if there’s a meeting, when a
director tells a attorney to shut up, and he shut up.
Then the dog is wagging the tail. The tail is wagging
the dog, instead of the dog wagging the tail. And I
understand that what happened in that meetin. I wasn’t
there. I’m just
~~unintelligible~~ about what I was told. If
Marlin’s trying to advise us and I just tell Marlin to
shut up -- something’s wrong. Now like I say, I don’t
know whether that happened, I wasn’t there, but I was
told ~~unintelligible~~ that happened. So you got one
person making all of the comments and don’t want legal
advice from the attorney. So you know I’m ready for
these thing to come to a end. I support Mr. Weaver’s
motion, simply because if two or three can work out what
this board can’t, in a sense of speakin, and we get what
we need for the long term, then I’m fine with that. But
I don’t want it drug out. It’s just that simple.
COM FRISINA:
Stephen, you were there, weren’t you. What was
your opinion of that? What was done?
COM BAILEY:
At least there’s dialogue. There had not been
dialogue prior to.
COM FRISINA:
~~unintelligible~~ a step forward.
COM BAILEY:
I hope that it’s a step forward. I hope that it’s
a positive step forward. But again, I think that good
faith effort on our part, even though we have, you know,
cream rises to the top. And you know, here we go again
and let’s give this thing one more shot and if it
doesn’t, then we’ve given every effort that we can to
come to terms and come to agreement and I feel that
we’ve got a better shot then if we have to go stand in
Tallahassee and ask for additional changes.
COM WEAVER:
Call for the question Mr. Chairman.
COM BAILEY:
The question has been called for. All those in
favor signify by saying aye.
(Williams, Weaver, Bailey, Frisina – “aye”)
COM BAILEY:
All opposed.
COM DUPREE:
Me
COM BAILEY:
The motion carries four to one.
--- 306 ---
