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2008 State of County address
Frank Bruno
County Chair
Jan. 28, 2008

Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to be here today to give the annual report on the state of Volusia County. I look forward each year to reviewing our accomplishments and outlining our plans for the future.                 

First, I would like to introduce my colleagues on the Volusia County Council. Please stand to be recognized when I call your name and hold your applause until the end. You know, true leadership is often unappreciated and unrecognized. I want to commend our County Council members for their leadership and willingness to make the hard decisions.  

Our Council Members are Vice Chair and at Large County Council Member Joie Alexander; District One County Council Member Andy Kelly; District Two County Council Member Art Giles; District Three County Council Member Jack Hayman; District Four County Council Member Carl Persis, and District Five County Council Member Pat Northey. Also, our County Manager, Jim Dinneen, and our County Attorney, Dan Eckert. 

This is the fourth year I have delivered the State of the County Address to you, the citizens of Volusia County. Each time, I have told you that we are in great shape -- we’ve made sound financial decisions, increased our efficiency in the delivery of County services and made solid progress on many of our goals.

This year is no different. Volusia County is strong as an organization, and as a community. Our decision to finance the Central Florida Commuter Rail system linking DeLand and Orlando was unprecedented. This project is a partnership effort between Volusia, Seminole, Orange and Osceola counties, as well as the City of Orlando and the state and federal governments. It will take thousands of cars off the highways while providing cost effective transportation to our citizens.  

The County, along with the municipalities, the School Board and the community, continue to take steps to protect and preserve the conservation corridor, the thousands of acres of wetlands and forests stretching across the center of the County. Earlier this month, the Council banned school construction in this area, which will allow us to limit growth and future development in an area that is crucial to our drinking water supply.
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Our joint planning agreement with the City of Deltona will utilize planned and well managed growth to protect rural areas and prohibit sprawl in Southwest Volusia. We also are working with the state to secure funding for the construction of the longest rails to trails corridor in the state, which will stretch 51 miles from Enterprise south to Titusville, with 36 miles in Volusia County.

When I gave my first state of the County speech in 2003, we were planning the groundbreaking for the Ocean Center’s expansion. Now we are looking forward to its grand opening at the end of this year as the state’s fifth largest convention center, and anticipating the boost in tourism and visitors that this expanded facility will generate. Already the entire, expanded Ocean Center is booked beginning the second week of January, 2009. 

Last year, following a divisive election on charter amendments, I told you that I believed our residents wanted their governments to work together. We share the same basic values and the same desire to protect and improve our quality of life. It just makes sense for the County and the cities to foster a closer relationship, for us to look beyond our own self interests and begin thinking – and acting - regionally.  

I’m pleased to tell you that this year we have seen an unprecedented level of cooperation and communication between the cities and the County. As the County Chair, I meet monthly with the City Mayors for lunch on a variety of issues and the County and the City Managers meet regularly regarding numerous issues on a more formal, monthly basis for lunch. This would have been unheard of just a few short years ago. The credit for this new atmosphere of government collaboration is largely due to County Manager Jim Dinneen, who has made it a priority to bridge the gap between our organizations. As a result, we have focused on creating partnerships -- partnerships with our cities, partnerships with our businesses, with our schools and universities, our civic organizations, and our surrounding counties. And our most important partnership, the one we have with you, our residents.  This idea of consolidating and combining services is, of course, nothing new. But working together has become significantly more important as those of us in government evolve to meet the challenge of providing essential public services with shrinking revenue.

These are just a few of the many good things happening here. Today we are celebrating our success through partnerships, and I’d like to show you a video that illustrates these partnerships and our accomplishments last year. Following the video, I will close with a few additional comments.
 
START OF VIDEO

Our Economic Development staff continues to develop partnerships to ensure there are adequate facilities and suitable sites for future employment centers. The County has partnered with the City of Ormond Beach to encourage the additional development of fully permitted industrial acreage to support employer recruitment. The County’s capital investment of $189,600 towards the City’s overall cost of $680,000 will provide road and utility access to industrial acreage capable of supporting up to 120,000 square feet of new manufacturing space and jobs at the Ormond Beach Airport Industrial Park.

A similar project is under way in our partnership with the City of DeLand. Working together toward the common goal of preparing opportunities for high skilled and high waged jobs, the County Council has approved a capital investment of $300,000. This will be used for the construction of a new access road that will open 70 acres of new industrial property. These joint investments by the City and the County will provide the opportunity for hundreds of new jobs in the DeLand area.

Last year, the Cities of Deltona and Ormond Beach initiated strategic planning for new economic ventures using the County’s technical assistance and expertise. Our investment of financial resources and technical personnel encouraged these partnerships, increasing involvement and participation of many members of these communities in planning for a healthy economic future. 

This emphasis on future economic development supports our working together and our continued cooperation. In Holly Hill, for example, the County invested in paving two streets that allowed us to improve conditions in an urban area and to encourage the City to annex one of its enclaves. This cooperative measure eliminated ongoing expenses to the County’s Public Works Department, while providing the required infrastructure to support the construction of 75,000 square feet of new manufacturing and warehouse space within Holly Hill. This multimillion dollar, private sector investment is adding new tax base to Holly Hill and the County, while providing a future employment site for our citizens. 

Our Economic Development Department regularly partners with Volusia cities to leverage local resources to find ways to retain our existing industries. Projects such as the consolidation of the Raydon Corporation’s facilities in Daytona Beach, and the retention of the Edgewater Power Boats production facility in Edgewater are prime examples of City-County partnerships that have lead to the retention of hundreds of high-wage jobs and millions in local payrolls. 

This same strategic partnering is attracting new capital investments and jobs in DeBary, Daytona Beach and Port Orange, as we work together with our cities to provide infrastructure support, road improvements and job training benefits to prospective employers. If we are successful in our joint efforts to compete with other Florida communities to attract new businesses and industries to move to Volusia County, these projects could result in more than $100 million in new investments, new tax base and more than 1,000 new jobs for our citizens. 

Our partnership with the Daytona Beach College Foundation is an investment in educational opportunities. The County has given the Foundation a total of $500,000 to make a Florida State University Medical School a reality on the campus of DBC. This grant will be matched by the Foundation, and used to complete this branch facility for third and fourth year medical students and also to support community healthcare programs. 

Transportation challenges have highlighted our need to find additional cooperative measures in which to partner with our municipalities and surrounding counties. One such partnership with the City of DeBary has been forged out of the effort to bring commuter rail to Volusia County. This County-City partnership will pay for an $80,000 transit-oriented development planning project designed to make DeBary’s commuter rail station center a success.  

Partnering on major road projects was a key strategy that was discussed at a transportation summit held in 2007. As a result, we have a number of road partnerships with the cities and the Volusia County School Board. 

These include:

A cost sharing partnership between the County and the School Board to construct the Rhode Island Avenue extension project in Orange City.  Once completed, Rhode Island Avenue will be the primary access road to the new Orange City high school now under construction. Rhode Island also will provide secondary access to a new middle school also under construction, and to Manatee Cove Elementary School. The School Board’s contribution included the donation of significant rights of way and the cost of all road construction abutting the School Board’s property, estimated at about $4.8 million.

Orange City also is a partner in the road extension, as the schools are located within its city limits. The City contributed $750,000 to purchase the necessary commercial property to move forward on this project. 

Ormond Beach is using a partnership with the County to accelerate the next phase of widening Clyde Morris Boulevard from Aberdeen to Falls Way Boulevard.  Phase 1 from LPGA Boulevard to Aberdeen is under construction, but Phase 2 was not expected to be funded for several more years. The County and the City agreed to split the $1.3 million shortfall in funding 50-50, and used a payment from the developer of the LPGA Development of Regional Impact to begin Phase 2 now instead of in four or more years.

Similar partnerships were developed with our other cities. A 50-50 funding partnership with Port Orange will pay for an $8 million shortfall in the construction of Phase 2 of South Williamson Boulevard from the Spruce Creek bridge to Airport Road. Without this partnership, this second phase would not be constructed until at least fiscal year 2015.  Construction will now begin in the first quarter of 2008.  

Daytona Beach and the County also will do a 50-50 partnership to fund a $3.2 million shortfall to widen Williamson Boulevard from Dunn Avenue to north of LPGA from two to four lanes with a median.

We also have inter-local agreements with Holly Hill, South Daytona, and Port Orange to maintain the County right of way on county roads that run through these cities. The agreements allow us to outsource the work to the cities, thus freeing County employees to do other maintenance. The Cities benefit by being able to maintain these roads to their standards when needed, such as during special events.

At the request of Oak Hill, the County is serving as the City’s water and sewer retail provider. Because the County purchases wholesale water from the City of Edgewater, and Edgewater in turn purchases wholesale sewer services from the County, a tri-party agreement was secured. In the agreement, Edgewater has increased total water capacity to the County by 200,000 gallons per day to accommodate the needs of Oak Hill, and the County will supply sewer service.

You know, Volusia County has been my home for more than 37 years and I can’t imagine living anywhere else. We are blessed with resources that many other communities envy, such as our world famous beach and our green and open spaces. Many of these open spaces were acquired through Volusia Forever. Since the inception of this nationally recognized program in 2001, the County and its funding partners have preserved approximately 37,000 acres with a market value of $81 million. Of this total, Volusia Forever contributed $44 million and its funding partners contributed $36 million. 2007 marked another lucrative year of partnerships between the County and the St. Johns River Water Management District, with more than 3,000 acres acquired for conservation. St. Johns contributed $9 million of the $24 million total purchase prices. 

Approved by our citizens at the same time as Volusia Forever, the Volusia Echo program continues to enrich our environmental, cultural, historic and outdoor recreation landscape. The program last year awarded 15 ECHO grants totaling slightly more than $5.6 million. The County Council also approved recommendations by the ECHO Advisory Committee to encourage partnerships for progress in developing the countywide master trail system through the competitive grant process.   

Some of the ECHO projects funded in the last year included an addition to the Rinker Environmental Learning Center at Stetson University, stabilization of the Three Chimneys archeological ruins in Ormond Beach, construction of new skate parks in Daytona Beach and New Smyrna Beach, and the development of a new sensory garden in South Daytona. The total amount awarded since the inception of ECHO is now more than $23 million. 

Our commitment to protecting our natural resources has led us to investigate ways we can also make our facilities environmentally friendly or “green.” This year, we will be applying for LEED certification for the Deltona Library expansion from the U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. This nationally recognized program verifies that a building is environmentally responsible, profitable and a healthy place to work. I would like to see us work with the community to change our development regulations to encourage the design and construction of more of these environmentally friendly facilities.

The Deltona Library’s expansion, by the way, sparked another partnership. The City of Deltona will contribute $2 million to expand the Deltona Library/Environmental Learning Center’s amphitheater from 300 to 1,000 seats. The City also will contribute $250,000 annually for ten years for the amphitheater’s maintenance and operations.

Another successful partnership is our Library affiliation with the Friends of the Library and the Library Associations. These volunteer groups work with their local library branches and together donate more than $200,000 each year to buy additional furniture, equipment, collection materials and more for our libraries. The Friends not only donate money, but many members also work as library volunteers, managing book sales and planning programs. The cost savings that these volunteers provide to our libraries is priceless, and they are our best advocates for public library service in Volusia County. 

Another partnership, one that will come to fruition later this year, is our new Criminal Justice Information System, or CJIS.  CJIS will allow the County, the state and local criminal justice agencies to quickly and easily share accurate information in real time. Here’s how it will work: A Sheriff’s deputy makes an arrest, and creates an electronic arrest report using a field laptop.  The report is sent electronically to the Jail and other criminal justice agencies.  By the time the deputy arrives at the Jail, the Division of Corrections has already received the electronic arrest information and immediately begins to process the inmate.  Within minutes, a Clerk of the Court case number is generated and a judge is assigned to the case.  The arrest information, case number and judge assignment are electronically sent to the State Attorney, Public Defender, and Sheriff’s Office. These agencies can then update their respective records, all without re-entering information. The mug shot system was the first of the multiple CJIS components to go live last year, and we will continue to rollout the program this year with plans to have it fully operating by December. 

Votran, our public transportation system, makes every effort to conserve resources by partnering with other organizations. These partnerships include the Volusia - Orlando I-4 express bus service, which is designed to reduce single vehicle traffic on the interstate and is funded through a partnership between Votran, LYNX, and the Florida Department of Transportation. Votran also partners with other transit agencies in the state on vehicle purchases, and with the Volusia County MPO to complete transit planning studies and projects that improve our operations. 

Votran implemented a fare increase last year, the first increase in almost a decade.  The change resulted in an increase in revenue for the system, but was accompanied with a decrease in overall ridership.  The decrease in ridership was expected, however, and a strong recovery took place.  The popularity of night service has continued, with ridership increasing by 11% to a record 560 boardings per night.  Votran also moved towards completion of a technology project that makes the agency not only a leader in the state, but a leader in the Country for it's comprehensive use of Intelligent Transportation Systems technology, or ITS. ITS will increase efficiency, reduce operating costs and provide improved customer service using systems that track vehicle locations, coordinate transfers between routes, facilitate faster paratransit reservations and service delivery and collect real time service and operating information. 

U.S. Airways has announced it is returning to Daytona Beach International Airport with three daily round trip flights to Charlotte, North Carolina. We are thrilled that the airline has returned to Volusia County, and confident this will continue to boost our air traffic, which increased more than 24 percent last year, largely due to AirTran Airways. AirTran’s arrival stepped up competition between the airlines, with Delta adjusting its fares and increasing the size of its jets. Both airlines are now offering flights to New York’s LaGuardia Airport. This has been a win-win for our citizens and the County, with more seats and lower fares to more markets. 

The Airport also has partnered with the three County Advertising Authorities – Halifax, West Volusia and Southeast Volusia – to provide more funding resources for new air service advertising campaigns. For example, the advertising campaign for AirTran Airways last year allowed AirTran to build traffic quickly and enabled the airline to extend its air service past the original contract expiration of August 2007.  The Advertising Authorities contributed $45,000 to this campaign. 

Almost a year ago, tornados caused widespread damage and underscored our need to always be prepared for an emergency. Volusia Prepares Business is a partnership between government, non-profit and private sector organizations such as the chambers of commerce, to help local businesses more effectively plan for and recover from disasters. Our Emergency Management Division and the United Way also have partnered to create the Citizen Corps, which is designed to coordinate and enhance volunteer efforts serving the emergency response community. By training citizens and getting involved in the communities, the Citizen Corps can make communities safer, stronger and better prepared to respond to all kinds of disasters. I am the Chair for the Citizen Corps Council, which brings together representatives from the County and city government agencies, as well as private businesses and non-profits, to discuss how volunteers can best meet the needs of their communities.

 Experiences such as the tornadoes last year and the 2004 hurricanes underscored the need to feed and hydrate emergency workers in the field during lengthy calls and prolonged disaster recovery efforts. The Volusia County Sheriff's Office turned to the community for help, and raised $24,000 in donations from the DeLand Rotary Club, the DeLand Breakfast Rotary, the Rotary of Downtown DeLand and Aaron Pest Control to buy a mobile field kitchen. The Sheriff's Office tapped into confiscated funds for the final $6,000 needed to make the kitchen a reality – without using any tax dollars. What a terrific example of a partnership with our citizens!

One of the most significant partnerships for the Sheriff’s Office has been our combined communications program. As you know, it has long been a goal of County government to improve the emergency response dispatch system and reduce costs by eliminating duplicate services. Combined dispatch saves taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars while increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the emergency response system. Under this partnership, the Sheriff’s Office dispatches for County operations as well as the police and/or the fire departments of Oak Hill, Lake Helen, Orange City, Daytona Beach, EVAC and several others.

Another important partnership has been the Volusia Bureau of Investigation, a multi-agency task force that pools resources from eight local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to target mid- and upper-level narcotics trafficking, racketeering and organized crime. The VBI has been very successful in dismantling large-scale drug trafficking networks throughout the County. Agencies that have joined forces with the Sheriff’s Office in the VBI include the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Attorney General's Office, the police departments of Daytona Beach, DeLand, Port Orange and New Smyrna Beach, the Daytona Beach Shores Department of Public Safety and the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

County government has the obligation to be the safety net for the people in our community who need help. This unique obligation has the power to transform lives, and it is one we take very seriously. To that end, we have donated property and a building to the Serenity House for the 76 bed Hugh West facility on North Stone Street in DeLand. We also provided grant funds to assist with several major renovations to the structure, which was previously owned by the Act Corporation, to ensure it can serve its target population.

The County also has partnered with the Serenity House to provide funding for a 16 unit/24 bed permanent housing facility in East Volusia for persons with a history of chronic homelessness, mental health and /or substance abuse. The Daytona Beach site provides individuals with a safe, sober and supportive living environment to continue with their recovery. In partnership with the Veterans Administration, the County also provided grant funds to assist with the Serenity House's 16 bed transitional housing facility for homeless veterans. Combined with the recent opening of 94 beds at the Homeless Assistance Center, these projects continue our efforts to expand services for the less fortunate.

END OF VIDEO

This video clearly demonstrates how much we can accomplish when we put aside our differences and work together for the common good. I believe these partnerships will be critical to County and city governments in light of changes to our property tax system. As you know, a referendum to lower property taxes will go before the voters tomorrow. It may be approved. But I do not believe it will significantly lower property taxes, or fix a tax system that many consider to be broken.

What we need is a fair and equitable tax system for all of our residents and our businesses. I believe that this issue needs to be studied in far greater depth and detail than it was last year, something that is now being done by the state’s Taxation and Budget Reform Commission. Our elected representatives and senators, as well as our citizens, need to understand how drastically cutting taxes will impact our ability to provide quality services, protect our environment, create much needed infrastructure and build a strong economy. There is no quick fix or one-size-fits-all solution to this very serious problem.

I am proud to say that when our citizens said they wanted their taxes lowered, we responded, and we did so 3 years before it was required by the state. The County Council took the initiative and lowered countywide tax rates by almost 5 percent for the fiscal year 2005-06, followed the next year by a reduction of 18.4 percent when the Council approved rollback tax rates for all tax funds with the exception of Fire Services. This year, the state mandated a 5 percent reduction below rollback, which decreased the countywide millage rate by 8.4 percent.

I cannot promise that the changes we may have to make as the result of any ill-conceived, state-mandated tax cuts will not affect our services to the public. We will try to make any reductions responsibly, so that our citizens feel the least amount of pain and continue to receive high quality services. But it would be irresponsible for me to suggest that such reductions won’t affect you. Our operating expenses for gasoline, employee health care, building and construction materials and so on, have increased significantly, just like yours. And contrary to a commonly held perception, government does not have an endless supply of money – we don’t grow it, hide it or make it. This year will be a difficult time for our local governments, as well as for the community agencies which depend on city and County funding. Those of us who are leaders will be severely tested.  I am confident that we will survive, but we must continually look for new resources and seek to be innovative in the way we do business.

One example of how we are pursuing innovation is our partnership with the Volusia/Flagler Higher Education Consortium, an organization comprised of the five colleges and universities based in our area. Some of you may already know that our transportation system is headed for a crisis. In just a few short years, the revenues we have available will not be enough to fund new road construction or even adequately maintain the roads we have. How did this happen? Construction costs and right of way prices have soared, while revenues from gas taxes and impact fees have remained flat. Let me remind you that gas taxes and impact fees, not property taxes, pay for road construction and when prices are high, people buy less gas and they build fewer homes. Those of us in government know this is coming. But, by the time our citizens feel this problem through traffic congestion and inadequate infrastructure, solutions will be much more expensive, because we will be so far behind.

If this message comes from County and City governments, citizens may think that it’s a ploy by government to raise their taxes. So we have asked the Consortium, a neutral entity, to determine if our concern is legitimate. If the Consortium validates this problem, then together, as a community, we will work on solutions.

This is how we will face the challenges ahead of us – together as a community, working on solutions. Each member of the Volusia County Council – myself, Joie Alexander, Andy Kelly, Art Giles, Jack Hayman, Carl Persis and Pat Northey – will be working together, looking for new ways to deliver services and be more efficient and cost effective. Together, with our partners – the cities, the community and our citizens – we will make our culture one that is always dynamic and constantly innovative. 

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today and for the opportunity to serve the citizens of Volusia County.

God bless Volusia County and God bless America.

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