By DOTTY NIST
At the Oct. 13 Walton County Board of County Commissioners meeting, (BCC) Chairman Bill Imfeld brought up the Walton County Grand Jury Report issued in early September and discussed actions in connection with the grand jury’s recommendations
The meeting took place at the South Walton Annex..
Most of the recommendations were related to grand jury’s investigation of the Walton County Planning Department.
Imfeld noted that the “two transactions in question,” had taken place seven or more years ago. The first had been concerning over $600,000 in recreational plat fees that had not been collected in connection with the processing of an application for a subdivision. The discovery of this incident in January 2015 by the planning department had triggered an investigation by State Attorney Bill Eddins and had later resulted in the grand jury proceedings. Evidence of another similar incident was presented to the grand jury involving the failure to collect $185,000 in recreational plat fees.
Imfeld spoke to the need to take recommendations made by the grand jury “very seriously.” He went over the recommendations in detail and commented on actions that had been taken or would be taken to address them.
Peer review process, letters of credit
Regarding the recommendation that the planning department continue with a “recently-instituted peer review process to prevent errors,” Imfeld said this process has resulted in both major and minor projects getting thorough review. On the recommendation for new software to calculate and track recreational plat fees, he said a request for proposals (RFP) for this software is already “in motion” and will be coming before the BCC for approval.
Walton County Attorney Mark Davis interjected that, in response to the recommendations, planning department calculations for fees are now being double-checked by the county finance office to ensure accuracy.
The grand jury had recommended the creation of “a formal method for tracking of letters of credit” and a look at an alternative to the letter of credit procss.
Obtained from a bank, letters of credit may be provided by developers in lieu of completion of infrastructure in order to ensure that infrastructure will be completed. The county may collect on these letters to obtain funds for completion of infrastructure when a developer has failed to do so.
Imfeld reported that changes to the letter of credit process had been instituted in 2010. This has triggered that letters of credit come before the BCC in advance of their expiration date in order for the county to collect on those letters. Imfeld also said that the county attorney has been directed to look at an alternative method and that information on this will be brought before the BCC for consideration.
Proportionate fair share versus impact fees
The grand jury had recommended a study to determine whether the county should continue with its proportionate fair share program to fund improvements to road segments impacted by development— or to go to an impact fee program. Imfeld said there is a draft RFP for this study in process now that will come before the BCC. An update for proportionate fair share calculations will be included in the RFP, he noted.
On the recommendation to determine whether it is more cost effective to continue the use of an outside engineering firm for proportionate fair share or impact fee calculations, versus assigning the task to county employees, Imfeld observed that employees being on leave could complicate the process if assigned to them. However, he said the issue would be examined both from a planning and finance department perspective.
Beeman study
There was a grand jury recommendation regarding the Beeman study, a study conducted in 2004 by Dr. Dan Beeman of the planning department that provided suggestions for department operation. The grand jury recommended that each commissioner read the report, that it be updated, and that it be used “as a template for county operations.”
Imfeld said that the report had been provided to each county commissioner. He said he had read it and observed that it described the planning department’s systems process as “reasonably efficient.”
Imfeld said the suggestions from the report would be considered in conjunction with the upcoming audit of the planning department by the Florida Auditor General, which had been requested by the BCC and for which Florida Senate President Don Gaetz had been able to obtain approval. The audit (forensic and operational) had been a further recommendation by the grand jury.
Auditing, employee training
Regarding another grand jury recommendation, Imfeld said it would be determined as part of the audit whether the number of auditors employed by Walton County is sufficient.
On the grand jury recommendation that commissioners should not be involved in day-to-day operations of the county, Imfeld said he believed that there was agreement among the BCC that its focus should be on budget and policy and not day-to-day operations.
On the recommendation for a more formal training process for planning department employees, Imfeld said that there is a briefing process for new employees and also a mentoring program in which experienced employees work with newer employees to start them on smaller projects and work with them to increase their capability to work on larger and more complex projects. A “lunch and learn” program is also available with training videos to help enhance planning department employees’ skill, he continued.
On the recommendation to guard against developer influence, Imfeld said the planning department has a strategic plan in place that focuses on accountability and ethical conduct.
He said the planning department has taken the investigation and recommendations to heart, even though the department now has almost all new personnel from the time the transactions in question occurred. Imfeld expressed confidence that the current staff members are doing their job well.
Later in the meeting, Walton County Planning and Development Services Director Wayne Dyess commented that the staff members in his department are among the finest that he has ever worked with and with the “highest integrity.” They work with great professionalism and are always interested in improvement, he said.
Reprimand recommendation, recoup of missing funds, LDC/CP “clean up”
Regarding a grand jury recommendation for reprimands of a county commissioner and the county administrator, Imfeld said he did not believe it to be “incumbent” or “appropriate” for the BCC or any entity other than the governor, if necessary, to issue such reprimands. He found reprimands to be particularly inappropriate at the present time, since the alleged offenses involved are under litigation.
Imfeld also suggested that the county attorney be tasked with investigating whether there would be methods of recouping the approximately $800,000 in recreational plat fees that had not been collected.
In response to another grand jury recommendation, Imfeld also suggested proceeding with a request for qualifications (RFQ) for a consultant to “clean up” and provide recommendations for resolving conflicts between the Walton County Comprehensive Plan (CP) and Land Development Code (LDC).
The latter action was approved unanimously following a motion by District 4 Commissioner Sara Comander. Comander suggested that a look at true zoning could also be pursued by the consultant.
Commissioners react to report
Regarding the Beeman report, Comander observed that those recommendations were for a planning department that was “overburdened.” “We were like cats in a sand box,” she said.
On the topic of day-to-day operations, District 1 Commissioner Bill Chapman commented that he did not know if commissioners could say, “all I do is policy and budget.” “You could not stay here,” he said.
Chapman agreed on the advisability of “straightening out” the CP and LDC, on a look at zoning, and on the validity of some of the other issues raised by the grand jury. However, he was of the opinion that the grand jury had overstepped its grounds by moving from a criminal issue to an investigation of the operations of the planning department and employee/personnel issues.
District 2 Commissioner Cecilia Jones commented that she liked the direction the chairman had suggested. By following the grand jury recommendations, “we can only improve our county,” she said, adding, “I support our planning department.”
District 5 Commissioner Cindy Meadows said she thought Chapman had “hit it on the head” with his comments on day-to-day operations. Commissioners get involved with many projects, as they are elected to serve, she said.
She pledged to continue to serve the people, answer and respond to their phone calls, “even if it gets me in trouble.” “We’re doing a yeoman’s job here,” she said.
Meadows also pledged to move ahead, taking the grand jury recommendations as direction, and learn from the situation without letting it “get us down.”
“I will continue to respond to those who elected me,” agreed Comander. She clarified that in instances of personnel problems she would call the county administrator.
Comander recalled getting a phone call at home one night when 12 inches of rain hit the county at the end of September. The call, she said, was from a man whose house was flooding. She said she could not have told him that she was only involved with budget and policy.
“He expected me to do something about it,” Comander said.
Public input
Zuma Banks, president of the Walton County Taxpayers Association (WCTA) told the commissioners that they had covered a lot of the WCTA’s concerns in the matter. She made a number of suggestions, among those interaction with the organization’s board of directors during the auditing process and public workshops on each of the issues involved.
Among her other suggestions were moving away from the use of letters of credit, digitizing of county planning records, and doing bids for county auditors every three years.
South Walton County resident Bob Hudson’s “take” from the grand jury report was that there is a lot of talent on the planning staff but that they are in need of better tools to help them do their job.
Davis reminded the commissioners that contact from the county was what had prompted the state attorney’s investigation being initiated. There were few subpoenas, as county staff had willingly and quickly provided the state attorney with whatever information was requested, he said. State attorney’s personnel were “very professional… in how they dealt with our office,” Davis said.
Staff providing testimony were advised by county legal services to be truthful and answer questions completely, he noted. “They handled it with a lot of grace and dignity,” Davis said.