At the December 4, 2007 Board of County Commissioners meeting, the board took the following action:
Solid Waste Authority – approved an interlocal agreement with the Solid Waste Authority (SWA) to purchase 230 acres known as the Hatcher property in North County for $20 million, $5.5 million coming from the SWA. Upon closing, SWA will pay the County to excavate up to 2.2 million cubic yards of fill for use at the County’s landfill.
Court Computers – approved a budget transfer of $400,000 from the State Attorney’s Court Information Technology Fund for a cold-storage room to house computers that hold criminal case files; agreed to use recording fee revenue, rather than tax dollars, to pay two-thirds of the $93,892 needed for a consultant to evaluate the Clerk and Comptroller’s criminal and traffic computer system.
Criminal Justice Commission – extended an interlocal agreement through Sept. 30, 2008 with West Palm Beach for the city’s youth-oriented Weed and Seed crime prevention program and approved an additional $100,000 in program funding.
Elections – approved a contract in the amount of $5.5 million with Sequoia Voting Systems for the purchase of a total of 1,001 optical-scan voting machines (910 plus 91 machines provided at no charge in return for prompt payment by the County).
Fire-Rescue – approved on preliminary reading and advertised for a public hearing on December 18, 2007 an ordinance that would add the City of Lake Worth to the County’s Fire-Rescue MSTU. If approved, the merger could be in place by Oct. 1, 2008. A contract review is tentatively slated for February 26, 2008.
EAA Mining – agreed to hold a summit in early 2008 to discuss environmental impacts associated with rock mining in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA).
Legislative Priorities – were briefed on 44 proposed local appropriations and funding requests for the 2008 state legislative session. Topping the list is a request of $3.5 million for construction of the reverse-osmosis water treatment plant to serve the Glades area.
Science Museum – granted a delay in the start of construction of the new South Florida Science Museum at Lake Lytal Park. The County has committed bond money and land for the $54-million project; science center officials were to have privately raised $32 million by the end of this year and start construction in April. Their fund-raising deadline was extended to June 2008 and the start-construction deadline to November 2009.
Israeli Bonds – adopted a resolution changing the County’s investment policy to allow the purchase of A-rated Israeli bonds. Previously, the policy only allowed investments in bonds rated AA or higher.
Government
