10/28/25 Lee County Legislative Delegation Meeting

[transcript] Good morning. Thank you all for being here today. This is the Lee County delegation meeting. We have a very full agenda as always. So thank you again for being here. We will start with our invocation, Senator Martin, if you would like to lead us through. Thank you, please stand. Heavenly Father, we thank you for today and we thank you for this beautiful weather that's upon us, but at the same time, we pray for those who are currently being impacted in the Caribbean by the hurricane. I pray that you'll give the speakers today clarity, wisdom, so that we can make good decisions about the direction, not just our state, but most importantly, the communities that we're entrusted to represent. We thank you for all those who are here who have taken time out of their day to make our system work better so that we can help more people. We ask that you bless everybody here and bless our time, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. I pledge allegiance. Thank you. We'll do brief introductions before we get started. And then on the agenda today, we have two local bills followed by general comments from the public. We're very excited to hear from all of you today again. Thank you for being here. So Senator Martin, would you like to lead us off and we'll go down the table? Yes, good morning, Chair. Senator Martin, I represent District 33 in the Florida Senate, which encompasses everything in Lee County, west of I-75 except a small sliver in North Fort Myers. Happy to be here today. And if you have any questions afterwards, feel free to reach out to my staff. I'm happy to get to those questions. Good morning, I'm Senator Kathleen Pasadomo, District 28, which is all of Collier County, all of Henry County and a portion of Lee County. This is my last legislative delegation in Lee County because I term out in November. And I just want to say that it has been truly an honor and a privilege to represent all of you in the Florida Senate. And I'm looking forward to my successor, who somebody else is going to introduce, taking over the reins and doing some really good for our community. Thank you. Good morning. Adam Botanah, the Canadian Springs Represent District 80. That's pretty much North Naples. All the way up to Boca Grande, a couple of municipalities. But I do want to introduce a friend of mine and I'm happy to have her here. Representative Lauren Mello is a guest of our delegation here, but I appreciate to see you here today and looking forward to working with you and moving forward through the next steps. And also her LA, George. So. Good morning. I'm Tiffany Esposito. I represent District 77, which is the eastern part of Lee County. And I also serve as the delegation chair. And I'm happy to be here. Good morning. My name's Mike Chilimbardo, District 79, which is pretty much the entire city of Cape Coral. Looking forward to hearing from everybody. And it's good to be here. Good morning, Jenna Persons, Malika, proud to represent House District 78, which includes the entire city of Fort Myers. And much of South Fort Myers, including where we are today. A huge thank you to President Aubrod and the FSW staff for, again, hosting our delegation meeting here. And I want to do a quick recognition. I have two new staff members who came on board since our last delegation meeting. And I want you all to be able to put a face to the name. So we have Kevin and Laney for House District 78. Thank you. Hi, good morning. My name is Vanessa Oliver. I represent District 76, which is all of Desoto County, the southern half of Charlotte County, and the northern parts of Lee County, including North Fort Myers and the northern part of Cape Coral. Looking forward to hearing from you all today. Thank you. Thank you. So we have two local bills that we're going to start our day with. So first, we're going to have a special act relating to Fort Myers Beach, Iona McGregor. Representative Botana, you are recognized to present your bill. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you members for hearing this bill. Pretty much folks what this bill was. This bill was brought on back in 2023 was to have a referendum done by Fort Myers Beach and Iona to see if they want to merge the two fire districts. Back in 2023, Adil was caught to say, let's do a study to see how this is going to work out, what's going to work, how can we make this happen? The study was supposed to be done back in September of this past year. We're still waiting on the study has not been completed. So simply what I'm doing is to file this bill at a local delegation that will bring it up to a general bill in a normal process. It will go through committee stops. It will have public comment and I always have my door open. But this is just to pretty much keep everybody in line. So this, if it does go on the ballot this year, so it will be in a ballot in 26 instead of 28. So we're just trying to keep everybody honest in this situation and pretty much that is the bill. Members, are there any questions? Representative Persons Molta, you are recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair, representative. So it's my understanding the two districts have undergo, started the voluntary merger process, what you're proposing as an involuntary merger. And it's part of the voluntary merger process. The first step is the study as you referenced. If the study comes back and shows there's no reasonable benefit to the merger, will you drop your bill? Representative Botana, you are recognized. I will definitely consider it and look into it at that time. I'll just try to make sure everybody stays on time. Representative Persons Molta, you are recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. And representative, I'll follow up on that question with a little more detail. If the study comes back and shows that the same level of service cannot be done in the districts without potentially increasing the tax burden on one or both districts, would you drop the bill? Representative Botana, you are recognized. Thank you for the great question. I think we should put it out to the voters, let the voters decide what they want to do. At the end of the day, it belongs to the people to make their decision. It's a referendum. Are there any other questions? Seeing none, we will move into public comment. Do I have public comment cards? Do I have comment cards for this first bill? So in an effort to make sure that we allow everyone time to speak, I'm going to ask you to please keep your comments to 90 seconds, not only for the bills, but also for the comments, the general comments later today. So again, 90 seconds, I really appreciate the time that you all have taken to be here today, but we want to make sure that everyone has a chance to speak. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am. Okay, so Scott Werth, Fire Chief from Fort Myers Beach. Welcome. You're recognized. So for the Lee County delegation, good morning. Thank you for having us here. Scott Werth, Fire Chief at Fort Myers Beach. So Representative Botana is absolutely right. We had hoped to have the survey done in time for before the session. It is not done yet. It is near completion. But we understand why the bill has been submitted. And again, like it was said, our hope is is that once the report is ready and the information is before you that you're willing to make a decision change directions. If that's what the report calls for or keep moving forward. In any case, we would like to say, I'd like to say on behalf of my community, thank you for making sure that it goes in front of the voters for referendum. I do appreciate that part. So we look forward to working with you once we have the report. Thank you. Representative Persons, we'll could do my answering a question. Of course. Chief, I'm just curious. And I want to thank both departments for going through the statutory steps to look to see whether a voluntary merger makes sense. Can you share with us how much money you all have spent on this independent study? Collectively between the two districts were right around 80,000, I believe, 75 to 80,000. That's not counting any of our internal staff time. That's just for the consultants. Thank you, no further questions. Thank you. If you could please state your name. Yes, Seth Comer, a fire chief with a high on a McGregor fire district. So I would just echo Chief Worth's sentiments as well. I was going to make that point as well. We have spent over $80,000 of taxpayer money to do this study. And it has taken longer than we thought for sure. But we have a timeline. If you're interested in seeing it, there's not been a month that has gone by without forward movement. It just takes time to study these things. So we are coming to the end. And I would hope the panel would be interested in the results of that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Anyone else who wanted to speak on this bill? Fabulous. Members, we are moving into debate. Is there any debate? Representative Persons Molta, you were recognized? Thank you, Madam Chair. And members, thank you for your patience in this process as well. The voluntary merger is a statutory process. And there are milestones to meet. And after report comes back, there's many opportunities for public input should the report support moving forward with the voluntary merger. And the involuntary merger is a different animal. I am one of the households who has had to call 9-1-1 in the past. And every second, for some of you to respond, can make a difference to your family. I live in the Iona McGregor district. And Chief Comer, I can't thank you enough, as well as the county public safety, or the services that you are providing to my household and to the entire Iona McGregor district. And when it comes to these life and safety matters of my family and of my neighbors, I take the matter very seriously. And while I understand the representatives' eagerness in making sure this continues to move forward, members, I can't support a bill that has no evidence behind it to show that both districts were the new district, the larger Iona McGregor district should emerge or happen, will be able to provide the same levels of service today using the same amount of tax dollars that are collected under the Iona McGregor's millage cap. Without any evidence that a study makes sense and that there are any benefits, as well as being able to ensure that our households continue to have the same first responder services that we appreciate and value today, members, I can't support the bill. Is there any other debate? Briefly. Senator Martin? Thank you. And I appreciate those comments as well. Representative Persons Molica, firefighter response times are extremely important. I'll be supportive of this if it's shown through the process in Tallahassee that the services, the resources will be used to increase services and increase response times having two separate structures, two separate bureaucracies, basically, if by combining those, we can free up resources to help more people. I'd be in favor of letting the individual voters in those districts decide. So today I'm a yes, but the devil's in the details and I'll be watching this closely as it moves through the house in Tallahassee. Thank you. Members, any other debate? Seeing none, Nick, will you please call the roll? Any more? That's some other questions. Someone else? Others? Yes, Vice President Hart? Yes. Madam Chair, can we pardon that reason? Yes. Representative議ant Harvard, multiple arguments. seated. Yes, Department of Justice. Mr. Ronton, pardon that it all worked. No? Committee member answers. Member 똑같i. Yes. Thank you. Please show the bill passes. Congratulations, Representative Botana. Good morning. Welcome, Senator Palmer and President Aubrin, Would you like to take a moment to introduce yourself? Hello, good morning, everyone. I'm so incredibly sorry that I am late. It is nobody's fault but my own. So I'm very sorry. My name's Ben Albritton. I live in Wachool. I represent District 27 in the Florida Senate, which is Southern Polk, all of Hardy, DeSoto, Charlotte, and Northeastern Lee. Glad to be here. Love this delegation. You guys are very lucky for sure. Good group people here that have a great skill said and wonderful heart. So I appreciate you all. Thank you. We're excited to have you. OK, next up, we have special act relating to Lee County Taurus Development Council. Representative Jill Embardo, you are recognized to present your bill. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, members. So this bill is a local bill for Lee County moves from the TDC currently has nine members. It moves it to 11 with adding one municipal seat and then one private sector seat that will be appointed by the County Commissioners. We changed it from, we changed it to a one-year rotation instead of a two. So then the cities and the local governments can rotate quicker off of it, quicker on and off. There is a permanent seat. The permanent seat goes to the largest populated city. And then the second seat would be the seat for the most revenue for that fiscal year. And then the other one would be a rotating seat. And that is the bill. Members, are there any questions? Representative Botana, you are recognized. Thank you. Thank you for this good bill, sir. Interesting term limits. Is there any term limits on these seats? Or how does it work right now? Representative Jill Embardo, you are recognized. Thank you for the question. So right now, each local government county, I mean, the seat is the county seat or the seat is the municipal seat. The private sector seats do not have term limits. So we do have some members that have been on for, I think, over 20 years. Any other questions? Seeing none. I want to. Oh, sorry. Representative, persons won't be recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. Representative, I just want to clarify the church development council. Do they, are they an ultimate decision maker or do they make recommendations to the board of county commissioners? Representative Jill Embardo, you are recognized. Thank you for that, that's a good question. So they don't make the decision. They take all the tourist development funds, they take all the projects, they bring in all the requests, they make the recommendation to the county commissioners, and ultimately the county commissioners will make the decision where those funds go. Any other questions? Seeing none, we'll move into public comment. I have no comment cards on this bill. Members were moving into debate, any debate? Seeing none, please call the roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you, Nick. Members, please show that the bill has passed. Congratulations, Representative Jill Embardo. That is, that ends the section on our local bill. So we will move into our presentations. First up, we have commissioned our pentegras from the Lee County Board of County commissioners. Welcome. Again, I'm going to ask you to please keep your comments to about 90 seconds. Great. Thank you. Good morning, Chair and members of the delegation. On behalf of the Lee County Board of County commissioners, thank you for the opportunity to present our 2026 legislative agenda for your continued support and partnership. Advance the needs of Florida's largest county and grow fastest growing county. Lee County's agenda reflects our share priorities, strong infrastructure, fiscal responsibility, and tremendous quality of life guided by the principle of the government's closest to the people, enable local leaders to shape the policies in which best fits their communities. Our message this year is simple. Lee County continues to grow. With that growth comes responsibility and investing in our infrastructure and community assets to make this place a great place to live. We are seeking state appropriations for essential public infrastructure projects that protect public health and support growth. That includes funding for the District 21 medical of Amber's facility which serves Lee, Henry, and Clayton County, which is currently running at peak performance, unfortunately. The former is beach water reclaimed facility, which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Ian and for utility projects in Southeast and North Lee County, which will ensure reliable water and wastewater services for our population continues to grow. We're requesting support for the transportation and mobility investments including the sunshine, boulevard extension, the liakers, and a shared youth path on Pine Ridge Road that expands the statewide sun trail network and improve pedestrian safety. Finally, we ask you to continue to fully fund the transportation distance fund, strengthen the FDOT's District 1 urban office and formatted to reflect the population and project load of our region. It makes priorities for state funding for regional growth like Burnt Store Road. Every one of these priorities comes down to the same goal, building a stronger community for the people of Lee County. Thank you for your partnership and recognizing that when we work together, the counties and state and the residents win. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Next up, we have Lee County School District, Superintendent Dr. Denise Carlin, followed by City of Fort Myers, Mayor Kevin Anderson. Good morning, Chair Esposito, and our distinguished members of the Southwest Florida Legislative delegation and congratulations to Senator Pasadoma as she transitions into another adventure, so we're very excited and proud of your service. My name is Denise Carlin, and I'm the proud superintendent of schools here in Lee County, and standing with me today is our school board chair, Sam Fisher, along with our other board members, Mr. Bill Rible, Mr. Armor Persons, and I want to make sure nobody else walked in late if you did please stand so I can recognize you. All right. So we are here today to just first of all in support of our shared mission, providing a world-class education for every single student in Lee County. First of all, and very importantly, I want to thank you. This delegation has been an incredible partner to our school district. Your continued support has helped to strengthen the safety of our schools, expand opportunities for our students, and to help us make real progress toward academic excellence. We are on our way to an A school district. We are deeply grateful for your leadership and for the work that you do on behalf of our students every day. As we look ahead to the upcoming session, we're excited to continue this partnership to keep working together, to protect our children, to raise academic achievement, and to open up even more pathways for teacher and student success. Together, we can continue building on the great momentum we've created, ensuring that every single student in Lee County has the opportunity to grow, to learn, and to thrive. On behalf of our entire school district, just thank you again for your commitment, your collaboration, and your continued support. We look forward to working with you to shape the future of our students. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Mayor Anderson, representing the City of Fort Myers, followed by the Town of Fort Myers Beach, Mayor Dan Allers. Good morning, Adam Chair, members of the delegation. It's truly an honor to serve the people of Fort Myers and I appreciate the support we've received from you over the years. I've got five projects I'm going to run through fairly quickly. Midtown Infrastructure, this project is an important catalyst for redevelopment, preparing the way for new businesses, residents, and economic growth. Our central wastewater treatment plant is in line with the state's efforts to eliminate surface water discharge and to serve the rapidly expanding Fort Myers population, which recently exceeded 100,000. Clues of Nature Center Restoration Project. This is the largest open green space in the City of Fort Myers. It's a pinnacle area for outdoor recreation. Fire station 18. We're building a micro station to ensure the protection and continued life safety of the city's grown population, as well as fill in emergency response deficit in the city's southeast corridor. And lastly is the citywide septic to sewer conversion. Currently, we have about 500 properties in the city that are still on septic. This conversion is essential to reduce ground pollution, protect stormwater systems, and ensure resilience in the event of a natural disaster. So I hope you'll give them all the consideration they deserve. And again, I appreciate all the effort you do for Lee County and the state. Thank you for being here. Town of Fort Myers Beach, Mayor Allers, welcome. Followed by City of Sanabelle, Mayor Mike Miller. Good morning, Madam Chair, delegation. Again, thank you for your service to your communities. Thank you for all the support you've given us over the past few years. We certainly appreciate it. Our ask this year will be similar to what we asked last year. We're looking to do more infrastructure, taking little bites of the apple as we can to get to back to where we were, amongst other avenues of finding infrastructure money to get our roads and our water back to where it needs to be. We're also here to ask you for your support. So it will be matching funds just like we went for last year. So we understand that you are under financial restraints just like the rest of us. So we're trying to be as respectful as we can of the tax dollars. We also need your help in securing some of our legacy. It's probably not the appropriate place to talk about it, but I think we should. We have a historical building that is under fire. It survived the strongest storm ever to see this area. But it's now under the siege of a new stronger storm under the name of fiscal responsibility. We'll need your support in protecting an 80-year-old historical building that also houses our elementary school. We certainly look forward to working with the school district and bringing that school back in whatever fiscal way we can. But I think it's a piece of history that people don't need to remember. That it put people in seats where you sit or I sit and even hire. And to take away the education and more importantly to take away the home of those children that have already lost their main homes to me would be a travesty. Thank you again for your time. I look forward to seeing you this year. Thank you for being here. City of Sanabelle, Mayor Mike Miller, followed by the City of Bonita Springs, Mayor Gibson. Good morning delegation. I'm Mike Miller, Mayor of Sanabelle. Sanabelle's recovery from Ian, Elaine and Melton is not done. But we've made great progress so far, due in large part to support from the state resulting from leadership by you, our local legislators. So we thank you. We have three appropriation requests for 2026. The first is a carry forward from last year when we requested $5 million for the reconstruction of our 26 miles of share use paths due to damage from the storms. We were granted $2.5 million last year and now are requesting the $2.5 million remaining. The path system is important to our residents, but it's also a significant attraction to visitors and important to full restoration of our island economy. The second is a request for $600,000 to modify two water control structures on the island's interior freshwater basins in order to prevent saltwater intrusion and provide better flood protection for our residents. And the third is $4.2 million for improvement of the stormwater drainage of the trade winds subdivision and surrounding properties. When developed in the 50s, stormwater drainage in this area was directly into the Gulf, but that is no longer environmentally permissible. Infrastructure improvements are needed to address regular flooding in the area that occurs even from moderate rain. Again, we thank you for your support. Thank you for being here. Mayor Gibson from the city of Bonita Springs followed by Mayor Gunter from the city of Cape Coral. I'm from Delegation and Senate President Auburn. Glad to see you guys this morning. I'd also like to say thank you for Senator Pasadoma. You've been a great friend to the city and we're going to miss you. The city of Bonita Springs wishes to thank the delegation for their previous funding for the city's restoration and recovery of Bonita Beach from the devastation of hurricanes to lean in Milton and also for the Rosemary Drive drainage and pedestrian safety improvements that directly impact a low-to-moderate income area of our city. This year we're asking for help with adding an emergency response center to the city, which includes the demolition of the old library building and construction of a storm harden emergency response center to support the city's emergency preparations, response, recovery, and continuity of operations. We're also looking to do a Paradise Road Bike Pedestrian Improvement Project, which will help out an older area of the city that's going through infill development and that's a very narrow corridor that greatly needs safety improvements with a sidewalk and biking facilities there to keep everybody off that narrow road that many, many cars are traveling on now. Also, we're looking to do a Bonita Beach Road Imperial Parkway Gateway Esthetic Improvement Project to help beautify the gateway to the Gulf as people come off of I-75 and head towards our beaches. And then we're also looking to expand the community aquatic facility, which is an older, smaller pool for the city. We're looking to make it a full-size pool so that way Bonita High School can do their practices and have swim meets there and also adding a child splash kitty pool area. But again, just want to thank you all for your help and appreciate everything you guys do for us. Have a great day. Thank you for being here. Mayor Gunter from the City of Cape Coral followed by the Village of Asterro. Welcome. Good morning and welcome. First, I want to thank the delegation or your hard work that you have provided for the city of Cape Coral over the years. I also wanted to thank Senator Pasadoma for her service to the community. If you look back and your leadership compared to where we were when you walked into office, from where you are walking out, I know our regions in a much better place so thank you. I wanted to also thank you for your appropriations that we received last year, but looking forward to 2026. I want to make sure that there are two main priorities that we have for our city. First of all, is any state and federal support for utilities expansion, which is essential for the water levels since our mid-Hallthorn aquifer has reached record lows. And we have expedited our process in order to try to get our water utilities in the northern part of our city. So any help that you can provide and making those type of programs move forward, I think will be essential for our residents of our community. Also, we have some transportation investments that we are in a process. We have Pine Island Road, widening, and also we're in discussions regarding the Burnt Store widening projects. And the reason that there are so essential, they are hurricane evacuation routes for our city, not only for our city, Pine Island, MATLA Shea. So these projects are extremely important and any type of assistance on those two projects, since they are our priorities this year, we would appreciate that. Also, I wanted to thank the delegation for today for moving the local bill forward and our discussions at the City of Cape Coral with Representative G. Labardo. What our goal was first off was to make sure that we were a good neighbor to our other cities. Of course, the City of Cape Coral did want a permanent voting position on TDC, but we wanted to also make sure it wasn't a detriment to the other cities. And I think the bill that was presented before you today does just that. And I ask for your support moving forward. So thank you and good luck with this upcoming legislative session. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Mayor Joanne Ribble, village of Estero, followed by Kevin Carrensley County Clerk and Comptroller. Good morning, honorable delegation. On behalf of the village, I thank you for this opportunity to speak. The village of Estero has four proposals that we'd like you to consider. First, a sterile facility alternate irrigation source. The village of Estero is expanding and redeveloping the athletic facilities at our Estero High School. The facility currently uses well-in-pond water for irrigation. The village is proposing to extend reuse water to the facility to better preserve ground water resources and provide a beneficial use for treated wastewater effluent. The Estero Parkway reuse main extension. The landscaping along Estero Parkway currently uses three wells for irrigation. The village would like to remove each one of these wells over the next several years to preserve ground water resources and provide a beneficial use for treatment wastewater effluent. As you know, coming out of rainy season, we are already in a deficit. The funding request is to eliminate the easternmost well, and this will also allow adjacent communities to switch to reuse water. Estero Williams Road and Atlantic Gulf Drive improvements. The intersection of Williams Road and Gulf Drive west of US-41 needs safety and traffic volume improvements to eliminate illegal left turns that regularly occur in this area. This is our most unsafe intersection in the entire city. The village is proposing to make roadway and intersection improvements to eliminate illegal left turns, improve safety, and reduce traffic backups. And finally, Estero Stony Grove Water Shed Extension Project. The Stony Grove community located between US-41 and the Estero River uses a package wastewater treatment plant to dispose of the community's wastewater. Their treatment plant contributes to the high levels of nutrients and bacteria in the Estero River and Bay. The village is proposing to remove the treatment plant and connect to the community to waste water and sewer municipal use. This will reduce the amounts of pollution discharging to the Estero River and the Estero Bay. So I thank you for your kind consideration on all these proposals and a special thanks to Senator Pasadomo on behalf of the village. We extend our best wishes to you for your future endeavors. Thank you for being here. Next up we have Lee County Clerk and Comptroller, the Honorable Kevin Carnes. Followed by our Lee County Property Frazier, Matt Caldwell. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, Senators. Good morning, Representatives. My name is Kevin Carnes, Lee County's Clerk of Court and Comptroller. I have the privilege and opportunity to wear five constitutional hats for our community and it's a pleasure to be with you today. Today I come forward with my Clerk to the Court hat on. As many of you know, I am state-funded in that regard and we have been asking for funding for a variety of years. You all have been great partners in that endeavor, but we still have more work to do. Clerk and Comptroller share our revenue across all 67, also 67 counties. And we are running a 2025 business on 2008 prices. So Clerk and Comptroller across the state will have two priority bills that we are currently working on. They are in bill drafting. We know they have a long way to go. I know I have your support, but I greatly appreciate your consideration as those two bills make its way through the process. On behalf of the 330 passionate professionals that work at my office, thank you for your service. Thank you for being here. Lee County property appraiser, the Honorable Matt Caldwell, followed by the Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Council. Welcome. Good morning, delegation. A long time residence. Remember my predecessor, Ken Wilkinson, said a standard that this office would be an advocate for the taxpayer. And so as you all endeavor to navigate your way through property tax reform, I just want to set a marker that we stand ready to assist in that. Two items I have not seen come to the forefront, and then I will talk briefly about the best item I have seen out of all of the house proposals. You have heard me say before that I think it is beyond time that we repeal and replace the required local effort. That is the property tax that is the easiest address in terms of avoiding any kind of food fights amongst the various branches of government. In addition, we definitely need to address the expanding scope creep of non-evilorm assessments. This second part of the tax bill continues to expand and impact all of our taxpayers. There are eight house proposals as you are aware. I'm not going to go over all the pros and cons from our perspective, but I will elevate HJR 207. That is the one that proposes a third homestead based on a percentage. The percentage approach has two things to recommend it in comparison to the whole number, the 225,000s that currently exist. Those diminishing value because of inflation every single year, they become less valuable to the taxpayer. By switching to a percentage, you eliminate that inflation creep that destroys the value. In addition, it also avoids the conflict between your fiscally restrained counties and your fiscally constrained counties and your large urban counties. Say an expansion to say $100,000 homestead would be something we would be able to absorb here in a large county like Lee, but that would be a devastating impact to your small rural counties with 15, 20,000 residents where their average values are at or below 100,000 in value. A lot to recommend the percentage approach and I would encourage you to really focus on that amongst all the proposals as a way to move forward. Thank you. Thank you for being here. The Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Council, I'm sorry, welcome. Good morning, Madam Chair. Good morning, members, President Albertan. It's nice to be here. Thank you for allowing me to speak today. My name is Itani Moten, and I'm the Regional Council for the Second Region. We are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the full Florida Senate. My area spans from Naples, Fort Myers, Tampa, Clearwater, Sarasota, Newport, Richie, Date City, Bartow through SeaBring. We represent public defender clients when they have a conflict and we are first in line for dependency cases. Currently, we are asking for two attorneys per circuit. We have five circuits, so that's 10 attorneys. We are also working with the Senate and the House towards the passage of HB177. And this is a bill that will help save lots of taxpayer dollars by allowing regional councils to do cross conflicts. And I look forward to working with all of you in Tallahassee. Senator Pasadoma, we will miss you. Thank you for everything you have done. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Florida Guardian at Lightum Office, the 20th Circuit. Welcome. Good morning. Thank you distinguished delegation and Madam Chair. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with you today. I'm Alicia Gera. I am the statewide director of legal services. I have the honor of managing the high-quality legal representation provided by these some 200 attorneys that are representing the most vulnerable abuse and elected children in the communities that you represent. You have been such a wonderful partner and supporter of the Guardian at Lightum Office. In 2024, you passed a bill 1224 and have allowed us for the first time in Florida history to represent all children in Florida's dependency courts. And we thank you for that and for your continued support. Last year, we were able to represent 31,622 children. You recognize the critical role that mentors play in supporting children who are aging out of foster care. And we thank you for that support. As of today, 1200 teens have been matched with a mentor and we are always searching for more. This legislative year, we've not been able to keep pace with other agencies with salaries and are very well trained and qualified attorneys and tell welfare professionals many of whom are attorneys, many of whom are board certified and our child advocate managers are certified professionals. And they are consistently recruited. We are requesting salary increases to help us with recruiting and retention of our existing employees. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Next up, we have Dr. Schmarff, Florida Gulf Coast University. Welcome. Thank you. Good morning, Madam Chair and the esteemed members of the Lee County delegation. First and foremost, thank you for the opportunity to be here and present FGCU's Board of Trustees approved legislative budget requests. As you know, FGCU, your university is in year two of the strategic plan. It is all about innovating for student success, FGCU's journey to excellence. We are committed to provide the skilled workforce to our region and provide the high quality education for our communities in southwest Florida and beyond. This year, as you know, the momentum continues with our success, starting from our nursing program with 100% passing rates at your university and all other successes that we are having in our programs. The momentum continues. We need your support for our recurring dollars to continue on implementing our strategic plan, operationalizing our strategic plan. And that request is again $24 million recurring funds. Along with that, our campus is growing and we need facilities improvements and we need new facilities. That has been included in your packets and I have been talking to each one of you where our needs are. Your university, FGCU, appreciates your support and I know that our time is limited and with that, wings up and go Eagles. Thank you. Florida Gulf Coast University student government, welcome. Good morning. I am Gianna Ihoma and I have the honor to represent over 16,000 students at FGCU as their student government president and member of the Board of Trustees. We are here today in full support of President Sumer and FGCU's 2026 legislative priorities and capital budget requests. A student government works alongside President Sumer to implement FGCU's strategic plan for student success. It's essential that we provide students with the tools and opportunities they need to excel in the ever changing workforce and beyond. Therefore, we ask and encourage you all to fund FGCU's operational support request of $24.2 million. Additionally, we also support our six capital requests to provide the necessary campus infrastructure that maximizes student learning and success. We look forward to seeing you all at our FGCU day reception in Tallahassee on January 26th and then again spending time with you all during FGCU day on January 27th. Thank you again for your continued support of your university and as always, wings up and go Eagles and thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you for being here. Florida Southwestern State College President Albright in. Good morning. Thank you again for having us here today. We appreciate it as always. Good morning. Thank you and welcome, everyone. Welcome to the lead campus of the six-time national champion home of the bucket ears. Glad you're all here with us. This is my 14th time getting to address the Lee County delegation. I can't believe I've been here this long. Again, Senator Pasadoma. The issue is well known each other long before the legislature. Back when I had here, I think you remember back that far. President Albright, good name. Glad to see you here. I'm going to keep it short. I'm going to see Madam you next week in Tallahassee. We're bringing our trustees up for some events and a good chance to meet each of the delegation members. You'll receive the information then. A moment of pride since we're the home team. Largest increase in our enrollment in our history, I think since maybe 2008-09. This fall unreal, almost 12% full-time equivalency growth. The growth is tremendous but with when you have gained, there's also some pain. So we're going to be talking to you about how we can alleviate some of that pain in terms of our being able to address the growth but also support resiliency in that growth. And also to make sure we stay focused on something we have been really focused on the last, certainly the last half decade in the growth of the workforce education pipeline. Some teasers that are coming out. We're really excited about the expansion of biomedical technology programs that we're looking at down at the higher campus. And our agro tech, agro science programs out in our labelle campus at the Curtis Center and the growth of programs and logistics in our Charlotte campus and the growth of those programs here as well. So we're regional. We're all over. But thank you so much. You'll be seeing us in Tallahassee. I don't have a great hand thing. I got to come up with something like that. But, you know, but I've been saying go bucks for a long time. So I can do no. I'll come up. Some kind of a pirate thing. I got to figure out anyway. Thank you all very much and appreciate you being here. Thanks. DeClaude. DeClaude. Yeah. Thank you very much. That's it. That's it. Thank. I'll do it. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Florida Southwestern State College Student Government. Good morning. Welcome. Oh, you can hear me. Good morning, everybody. Thank you so much for the opportunity here for you to speak. My name is Rebecca Larea. I'm international student and I represent an FSW as the Student Government Association here at Lee campus. Thank you. I choose FSW because of is affordability right now. I'm studying my AA and an AS in science and engineering technologies. FSW have been helping me a lot. It's been a amazing tool helping me with the leads, the staff and everything. I choose SGA to be part of the Student Government for helping the student as FSW has helped me. One of our major initiatives is our Constitution Day. We collaborated with our Legal Studies Club, including our Lee County Election Centers, where students had the opportunity to learn more about our civic constitution. Secondly, this semester, FSW hosted a physical conference here in our campus at Collier, our region for retreat. As part of that event, we hosted a donation drive for foster children across South Florida. We collected over 109 bags and nearly 120 attendees. Looking ahead, we're excited to contribute representing the college as we travel to the physical conference. I want to express my gratitude for your previous support for having you provide everything for FSW. It's been helping students. It's been helping me. Thank you again for believing in the mission of FSW. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Next up, we have Lee Health followed by NCH. Good morning. Thank you very much, and esteemed members of the delegation appreciate the opportunity to be here. My name is Michael Nash, chief of staff at Lee Health. I want to tell you a bit about the investments that you have made in Lee Health that have paid dividends for the people of Southwest Florida and Lee County before I make the major ask for this year. One of the things you had done historically is you made an appropriation for graduate medical education in Cape Coral. That appropriation has led to the start of an OBGYN program that goes live in Q1 of this year. So for labor and delivery, we are running towards that and we are expanding our footprint. And the mobile unit that you helped us secure after Hurricane Ian. We took that and we've been deploying it when we don't have natural disasters and we're utilizing it to bring care of the underserved areas in the region. With the governance change that you helped us achieve last year, we've been working to expand our footprint and do more recruit more doctors and provide more care. So for this year, how are we going to top that and how are you going to top that great work. I'd love to tell you the way we're going to do it is by asking for a graduate medical education center at Gulf Coast Medical Center. We're going to do this as a multi-phase appropriation and year one, we're going to seek $15 million to be able to get us started on this building with a lot more coming from us and from philanthropy. And with that graduate medical education center, we're hoping to take our residency programs from around 100 residents today to nearly 400 in the relative the near future. We are going to train the physician workforce in Southwest Florida and keep them here locally to make sure that we're getting the care of the people who need it. I also want to give a shout out to our academic partners in Florida Gulf Coast University and FSW. We've been working with the pipeline and line funding that the legislature created, matching that with Lee Health Dollars and ensuring that we're training the workforce for nursing and keeping them here locally as well. Through all that expansion, I also want to mention the rural renaissance and the rural hospital fund on the federal government side. We're going to be looking at opportunities to deploy virtual care and in that deployment also get physical care out to places like LaBelle, Eastern Charlotte County and Eastern Collier County as well as Lehigh Acres. Not quite rural and Lehigh Acres but certainly an area that could use some more services. So as we're looking at all those opportunities, there are some things that overlay with the federal government right now, hospital at home and virtual care are limited by virtue of continuing resolution. Once those programs are back on and federal government is fully open for business, we're going to continue to ramp up those programs and expand. And I just appreciate very much the opportunity to be with you all here today and happy to answer any questions. Thank you for being here. We appreciate it. Except we have NCH health care system. Welcome. Good morning members. My name is Matt Holliday on behalf of our president Paul Hiltz and our board of trustees. I always appreciate these days. Is the hallmark of our republic that we get to come and speak with you all and have these moments to share not just with you but our community. Exciting things that are happening across all these wonderful organizations that are here today. So thank you for the opportunity to speak on the 2026 priorities for Naples comprehensive health. With three hospitals, five emergency departments, almost a half a million patient visits a year. We are committed and accountable for our community with access to top quality care as our north star. And that's defined by our local governing board here in Southwest Florida. We're making significant investments to expand both the reach and the depth of our care. Particularly with populations that have traditionally limited access or limited opportunities out in our eastern part of Collier County. We are bringing a freestanding ED to Ave Maria. We have an urgent care in two different locations in eastern Collier. And we'll also be exploring the bringing of a neighborhood hospital out to the Ave Maria and a mockery service populations and perhaps some other places here in Southwest Florida. The rural communities and obviously our women and children are our priorities right now. Whereas most hospitals are closing or many hospitals are closing their labor and delivery we are expanding through our partner with Nicholas Children's Hospital out of Miami. And we'll continue to focus on those areas. The reason I'm here partly is because 30% of our workforce originates here in Lee County, even as far as Cape Coral and up into Charlotte. So 30% of our workforce travels a tremendous distance to go to work each day. Partly due to the cost of living and housing costs all around. But we're proud to say that 11% and 12% of our nurses and our physicians respectively is our turnover. That's it. That's a remarkable number. And I think it speaks very highly to the quality of workplace as well. And not just the employees, but a lot of patients originate in Lee County. County boundaries mean little when you're seeking the best care and the best work environment. So we're tremendously grateful to our academic partners, our school districts, Florida Gulf Coast, Florida Southwestern, Go Bucks, my home for 11 years. And I was here and of course, Ave Maria out in Collier. We love our nurses, the line and pipeline finding that you all have supported is very important for us. But the technicians, the clerical staff, all of that matters and we're always going to support our higher ed partners in their asks. We are also seeking a couple of requests this year that are matching funds. We have a heart hospital that we're just getting to go vertical with in downtown Collier that is a $300 million project. And it's attracting interest from around the country based on the caliber of practitioners that we've been recruiting. So we're definitely going to be speaking with you in Tallahassee. I've eaten up more time than I thought I would and I'm recognizing the hook. So thank you all for your attention and your support and go in CH. Thank you. Thank you for being here today. Next up we have Pay Center for Girls, followed by the Florida Citizens Alliance. Good morning, welcome. Good morning, Chair Esposito and members of the delegation. I'm Sally Jackson. I am a member of our board and our Executive Director, Ms. Jenny Celetti, could not be with us today to a family emergency. You have with me one of our counselors, Ms. Rosalie, and she will be introducing one of our PACE girls Angelica. We are so grateful for the support from this delegation for all the years that PACE has existed and particularly our increase last year, which helped us immensely here in Lee County, we're grateful. Thank you so much for your ongoing support. And I'd like to introduce Ms. Rosalie who will introduce Angelica. Hi, thank you so much. I want to first take a minute to thank Angelica's parents for also being here in support of Angelica today. I've had the privilege of working with Angelica for a short time, but she's made a remarkable growth in just a short time of being a PACE, so she's going to go ahead and share a little bit about herself and her journey at PACE. Good morning, my name's Angelica. I'm a student at PACE Center for Girls. I have been here for five months. I came to PACE because I was facing challenges with my mental health relationships with my parents and past traumas that made it hard to focus and succeed in a traditional school setting. I, at my previous school, it was difficult to stay focused and get the support I needed. The large class sizes in the lack of personal connection made it hard to keep up. At PACE, things are different. The smaller classrooms helped me learn effectively and the staff take time to truly get to know each student. The counseling services at PACE have also helped me manage my emotions by working on healthier coping skills and improving communication with my family and staying on track with academic goals. I have many things about PACE that have been one thing being that PACE is more than just a school. It's a supportive environment where students can focus on both their education and personal growth. The staff make it easy by demonstrating their kindness and allowing me to be me. My goal is to graduate from PACE next year and become in major in forensic science so I could become a corner. Also, I have been at PACE for, I have not been at PACE for very long but I am happy to say I currently have all A's my mental health and relationships have, with my parents, have also been much better. I can say I am happy and finally excited for my future. Grateful for the support PACE has given me to make my dreams possible. Their support and guidance have made all the difference. Thank you for your time in supporting this program. It makes a real difference. If you are interested in visiting PACE or taking a tour, we are happy to have you. Again, thank you so much and I want to remind you about PACE at the Capitol February 10th. We look forward to seeing you. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Florida Citizens Alliance followed by League of Women Voters of Lee County. Good morning members of the delegation. I am with the Florida Citizens Alliance. This year we are focusing on three areas of legislation. The first is removing a loophole in Florida law that allows for material that harms children's mental health and their schools. Many studies show that the exposure to this material can have negative effects on children. And we believe the solution for this loophole is by adding a part D to Florida Statute 847.001. The second area is to empower parents by providing transparent world-class competitive school grades. Currently in Florida, for all elementary schools, scoring 62% or better. And for all other schools, scoring 64% or better, the school currently earns an A grade. This is not how we grade students though. In almost all cases for students, a 90% or better is an A. We believe that parents deserve to know what grade their child's school is actually earning. We cannot prioritize help for low-performing schools if we do not have a clear sense of what each school true grade is. Additionally, in order to build a world-class economy in Florida, businesses desire to hire students who have shown mastery of subjects. Under the current grading scale, it is very difficult to determine if that has truly occurred. The third area of our focus is to empower parents to choose what AI content their child can access in schools. AI can provide some very good benefits to students. However, parental rights must be respected and children must be protected. We have now seen multiple cases of suicide that were associated with AI. New studies out of MIT and other prestigious institutions have shown that prolonged AI use can affect cognitive abilities. We can protect students and empower parents by requiring parental consent before using AI in the classroom. And by strengthening our data privacy laws to protect student data by allowing parents to consent to share their child's data with AI companies. If any of you have any interest in working with us on one or more of these bills, please let me know and we'll be in touch. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for being here. Except we have the League of Women Voters of League County followed by the Florida Department of Elder Affairs. Welcome. Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the delegation. I am Sandy Frank, President of the League of Women Voters of League County. The League's nonpartisan mission is to empower voters and to defend democracy. For over 100 years, the League has worked to improve government and to engage all citizens in decisions that impact their lives. Today, the League has three requests. First, say no to mid-cycle redistricting. Floridians don't want political districts drawn with partisan intent. Legislators must adhere to the 2020 Fair Districts amendments and the clear standards they provide. Redistricting is intended to reflect population changes captured in the U.S. sentences with district maps drawn every 10 years. The partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional in Florida and no district is to be drawn in favor of an incumbent or political party. Stable electoral maps mean consistent representation to address local concerns like clean water, emergency operations, and disaster recovery. Redistricting is expensive. Taxpayer dollars should be spent on urgent issues such as the costs of daily living, insurance, housing, and infrastructure. Our second request is say no to bills that make it harder to vote and register to vote. Voting is a right. Respect that right by opposing efforts to make voting harder or more on our onerous. Third, we ask that you fully fund elections administration to ensure that the Secretary of State and local supervisors of elections have the necessary resources to run fair, secure, and efficient elections. In closing, I'd like to thank the delegation for the support that you gave to make it possible for voters to decide how Lee County's commissioners are elected and there will be a referendum in 2026 thanks to your support. Thank you for your service and for the opportunity to be here. Thank you miss. Next up is Florida Department of Elder Affairs Rita Duncan. You are recognized. Good morning. My name is Rita Duncan and I'm a volunteer. I'm Bedsman for the Florida Department of Elder Affairs. After being certified following training, I visit nursing homes assisted living facilities and adult family care homes to advocate for residents. The mission of the Florida long term care on Bedsman program is to improve the quality of life for all Florida long term care residents by advocating for and protecting their health, safety, welfare, and rights. When residents need someone to advocate for these rights, on Bedsman can assist them in speaking to the right person at their facility or going outside that facility when necessary. They give consent for this process and we work on their behalf to resolve problems to their satisfaction. During my two years of service in this role, I have advocated for a resident that was trapped in an elevator and had to be rescued by the fire department. A resident that was forced to move to a higher level of care in order for the facility to charge them more and have the ability to have another admission. I've also helped residents to continue to receive medication by mail without facility interference and their rights to privacy and independence. Florida has 203,000 long term care beds currently, which is up 18% in the last 16 years. As we live longer and many of the residents that I represent are over 100. This number will continue to increase. I'm here today to ask that funding for the long term care on Bedsman program be protected to maintain staff support to support this volunteer model and allow recruitment of more volunteers to assist and serve our long term care population in Florida. Ensuring their health, safety, welfare and rights are protected. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Next up, we have the Teachers Association of Lee County, followed by the Florida Natural Pathetic Physicians Association. We have Kevin daily. Okay. Moving on. Next up, we have the Florida Natural Pathetic Physicians Association. Welcome. Good morning. I heard you pause a little bit when you said natural pathway is very common. Most people have no idea who we are or what we do. So I'm happy to talk more about that. Thank you for having me here and giving me this opportunity. I'm really grateful for it and so is our organization. So I'm Theresa Spano and again I'm with the Natural Pathetic Physicians Association of Florida. I'm here in support of HB223. It is a bill that would legalize Neutropathy in Florida. It creates a clear distinction between licensed natural pathetic doctors and other providers and establishes different rights and responsibilities based on level of training. I have lived and worked in Lee County for the last 10 years. About four to five of those years were with Lee Health and then nine of those years with Dr. Heather old. Through that time here, I've seen the care that people are looking for and the bridge that we could really provide for people. I am one of those people who is lucky enough to have been benefit from naturopathic medicine. I am 20 years on remission from Crohn's disease and I have a two year old because of what I know about naturopathic medicine. So I'm extremely passionate about it and I would love to bring it to other people here in Florida. I'm happy to answer any questions at any time from any of you here about it. Just so people can learn more and know that they have options that people are getting in other states and currently leaving leaving the state of Florida so they can get that care or seeking people who are not educated at all unfortunately. So again, I'd be happy to answer any questions and thank you again for having me here. Thank you for being here. Next up, we have the area agency for on aging for Southwest Florida. Welcome. Good morning. Thank you, Madam Chair and delegation members for championing services for seniors in Lee County. Your support ensures that our older population can age with dignity and safety. At the area agency on aging, we serve as a critical lifeline for seniors across Southwest Florida. In Lee County alone, over 281,000 residents are 60 years or older. And every day, our programs connect vulnerable seniors with essential services that allow them to age and place safely, preventing unnecessary institution of care and reducing strains on our health care system. Last year, we served over 81,000 seniors through our older helpline alone yet 1,331 eligible seniors are currently waiting on the wait list for services, some waiting nearly over a year for help. So I just want to share Mr. R story. He's a local resident who has been on the ASO caregiver for his bed ridding wife Mrs. D since September of 2023. And this is due to a stroke that she suffered. He has been her caregiver for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. After nearly a year of waiting, funding made it possible for them to receive 24 hours per week in home care services. Mr. R wrote, people sometimes don't think about the stress placed on family members when they become the 24,7365 day caregiver. The help your organization has provided helped me a great deal as well. You see, this funding didn't just help Mrs. D. It saved Mr. R from caregiver burnout and kept his family together. The return on investment is remarkable and home care costs provided through the appropriated funds cost an average of 66,000 a year versus over 93,000 for Medicaid nursing home placement. That's a savings of about 86,000 per person a year. Our funding requests this year is 21 million in state reoccurring appropriation. We are requesting 10 million in community care for the elderly, which is case management and care coordination that prevents isolation and connects seniors to critical services resources. We're also requesting 5 million home care for the elderly and this is in home assistance that keeps seniors independent and prevents the far greater cost of institutional care. Lastly, we are requesting 6 million in Alzheimer's disease initiative, which provides respite care that prevents caregiver burnout as dementia cases continue to rise. Your support ensures that Lee County's over 280,000 seniors receive the care they need when they need it. That the over 1,300 currently waiting on the wait list receive help before their situation becomes critical and that we continue to save taxpayers over 86,000 per person by preventing Medicaid nursing home placements. Thank you for your partnership on behalf of our seniors in our community. Together we can ensure older Floridians who build our community receive the compassionate service they deserve. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Next up we have solace care. I would just like to remind everyone to please keep your comments to about 90 seconds. We still have about 40 people wishing to speak and I want to make sure we have time for everyone to have an opportunity to speak. Good morning, Madam Chair and good morning to the delegation. Thank you first of all for funding Lee County's first and only central receiving facility were up and running not only do we serve Lee County but we also serve Henry and Glades individuals getting them behavioral health services expeditiously and then referring them to other necessary services. A reminder, salus care serves 16,000 individuals in our community suffering from behavioral health diseases, mental illness and substance use disorders. So thank you so much. We're up and running and we are seeing individuals every day. Senator Pasademo also thank you for your relentless support of salus care and our behavioral health community. We're making an ask this year a one time capital ask we've partnered with the Fort Myers Police Department and they've completed an assessment in one of our campuses where we house 100 individuals men and women we have their children to come and visit as well. These are for folks that are on their recovery journey. They're also managing other behavioral health diseases. We have separate four separate levels of care and some of the security upgrades that will be asking for and that were recommended by the police department are lighting some additional fencing, gating and security key pads and also security windows. And this particular campus is in downtown Fort Myers off of Grand Avenue in Dixie. It's an area that is up and coming but it's also an area that does continue to experience some crime. My time is up. Thank you very much. Thank you for being here. Next up we have Healthy Start Coalition of Salvas Florida followed by the Children's Network of Salvas Florida. Good morning, welcome. Good morning Madam Chair on our delegation and staff. We thank you for this opportunity to share about our initiatives with moms and our beautiful babies here in Lee County. I'm Meredith Narayan on the executive director of a Healthy Start Coalition in Southwest Florida. We cover Lee Collier, Henry and Glades. And our Coalition's mission is to reduce infant deaths and premature births as well as promote healthy developmental outcomes for babies and young children. We're serving families in Lee County and across our region since 1992. Further details are found in your packet today, but I wanted to just cover our basic system of care. We have a coordinated intake and referral system. So we have an entire team dedicated to contacting all families who are recently pregnant or have just had a baby to see what their risks and needs are. We have to refer them to all services. They're available to them here in our community. We do a monthly fetal and infant mortality review. So we look at all infant and fetal death cases to seek out what their root causes were. And additionally we have team dad fatherhood home visiting programs for the fathers here in our community. We're also very well known for our Healthy Start diaper bank. We're slated to distribute more than 1.8 million diapers across our region this year. And as many of you know, the WIC and SNAP benefits do not allow for the purchase of diapers and wipes. So our programming is strictly based on philanthropy and millions of in-kind donations from some of our large corporate partners. So first and foremost today, we're not here to ask for anything. We're simply here to thank you for the additional $3.4 million that were appropriated in last year's legislative funds. These are for Healthy Start programs statewide. And these dollars are slated to come in here to Lee County hopefully later this week. And they will be used to hire additional home visitors that will go and seek more clients, about 35 to 40 more clients will be served with that funding here locally. I'm also proud to share that we've served over 1,500 families last year with referrals and home visiting services. And it should come to no surprise that babies are being born at a higher rate every single day. We're seeing about 35 to 40 births here in Lee County alone, another 10 a day in Collier. And we're just seeing that population continue to rise. So as with all social and human services here, we're trying to manage that growth here with our babies. And the other challenge that I wanted to bring your attention to is obviously the lack of providers, OB and GYN providers and the lack of prenatal care. Only 58% of all the births had access to their first trimester prenatal care. So they can't get appointments. It's too hard that first prenatal appointments actually really long visit. So we're looking to add more OBGYN providers and that residency program that will be at the Cape Hospital is hopefully going to alleviate a big part of that. So thank you for your time today. We look forward to meeting with you next week in Tallahassee and for your support of moms and babies. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Children's Network of Southwest Florida followed by the National Association of Social Workers. Again, please keep your comments to 90 seconds. Yes. Good morning. Honourable delegation. Not a race, Sally, CEO of Children's Network Southwest Florida. First and foremost, thank you for your public service. And thank you for allowing us to come and tell you a little bit about the state of child welfare. So in Lee County, we serve 1000 abused and neglected children daily. Luckily, 94% of those children find permanency either through reunification with their biological family, placement with relatives or adoption. So I will, I have provided a lot of data to you. So I will not bore you with that again. Just a few quick things. November is National Adoption Month. Since we've been here last 22 years, we have adopted 3,270 children. Saturday, November 23rd is actually National Adoption Day in Lee County. We will have an event where 14 children will be adopted. Adoption hearings are closed hearing. It's a privileged hearing that no one gets to attend except for National Adoption Day. So if anyone here wants to see the miracle of adoption and putting a forever family together for a child, please come join us at the Lee County Courthouse at 9 o'clock Saturday, November 21st. I want to just one ask, please. You will receive a funding model this session that's been put together by Department of Children and Families and KPMG consultants with partnership with community-based care lead agencies. I want to ask you to please pay special attention to areas of the state who have received funding to bring them up to equity. There is a big chance that we might backslide and lose some of that support. The reason for that is we have been efficient. We have been reducing the number of kids that we allow to enter care by prevention and early diversion. This funding model is actually an expense model. The more you spend, the more you get, the more kids you have, the more you get. It's a per-child per month model. So areas that have been efficient and have reduced entries might see some reduction in their funds. So pay attention to that. Also a hold harmless for agencies that have received funding in the last few years. Give us a ramp to really invest those funds without losing them. And then real quick, I just want to thank Senator Martin for coming and spending a whole day with our staff and going on a ride along, actually going with our case managers into the home and seeing firsthand what our case managers do to serve our families. And then finally, Senator Pasadomo, I don't know what to say. When I first came to Tallahassee, I was so nervous. I'm still nervous when I come to talk to you. But you made me comfortable because we bonded over our cowboy boots and our brawmen bags and purses. So I will never forget that. Thank you. Thank you. I love you. And we're here to serve you and our community and proud of it. Thank you. Thank you for being here. The National Association of Social Workers, followed by the Southwest Florida Regional Coalition to End Homelessness. Good morning. I'm Hugh Clark and I am the president elect of the state chapter of NASW, but also a proud member of the Southwest Florida unit of NASW. I'm here to highlight two priorities that NASW is supporting this year. The first is House Bill 13 and Senate Bill 74 combined there. This is the social work compact interstate compact law, which would have the impact on the social work workforce and own clients that we serve. It's designed to eliminate barriers to practice and increase access to care, especially in areas that are underserved and that lack specialty care. Currently, social workers must get a license in each state separately and the compact is designed to streamline that. It will facilitate interstate elemental health. It will provide continuity of care for people who move or travel. It will allow active duty veterans and active duty armed forces to continue care with their providers in the state. The second bill that we are currently being drafted, and should be filed this week, is a regulation that will allow the state to move forward on both sides this year and get it to the governor's desk. The second bill that we are currently being drafted and should be filed this week is a regulation on the use of artificial intelligence for providing counseling services. We have seen in her any number of stories these days regarding the misuse and abuse of artificial intelligence for providing counseling and seeing some very bad outcomes. We are not trying to regulate the complete use of AI in mental health services, but for providing that one-on-one counseling, we want to ensure that the clients are receiving face-to-face clinical services from a licensed clinical therapist. So we are pushing for this bill to be moved forward, and we hope we can get your support on that. We thank you again for your time and service to us. Thank you for being here. Next up, we have Southwest Florida Regional Coalition to end homelessness, followed by the Interfaith Alliance of Southwest Florida. Again, asking you to please keep your comments to 90 seconds. Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the Lee County Delegation. I am Jessica Turner. I'm partnership manager for the Home Coalition, which is out of Collaboratory. I'm also Chair of the Lee County COC Governing Board. I am here to speak on behalf of Michael Overway, who is the Executive Director of the Lee County Coalition to End Homelessness. He had a family emergency today. I am here to speak in support of the 2026 legislative priorities of the Florida Coalition to End Homelessness. There are five of them. First, please maintain the recurring funding for the homeless staffing grant, which is currently at $5.2 million statewide. These funds pay the salaries for the hardworking people that daily are ensuring accountability for the over $130 million in federal and state funding. Second, we're asking for a continuing of the reoccurring challenge challenge grant of $20 million statewide. This gives flexibility to meet urgent needs for individuals and families. Next, we're asking that the $10 million in non-reoccurring funds that was created as a result of the public camping and sleeping legislation be made reoccurring. Last year alone, there was a 19% reduction in unsheltered homelessness statewide. Fourth, we are asking for full appropriation of all affordable housing trust fund dollars for ship and sale programs. Finally, we are supporting legislation that is requiring state funded organizations to collaborate with local continuums of care through discharge planning to prevent people from jails, hospitals, and foster care from being discharged to homelessness. We deeply appreciate your partnership and the support of these proven and cost effective solutions to end homelessness. And then I want to give a special thanks to Senator Pasadomo. We are so grateful for the groundbreaking work that you have done for workforce and affordable housing with the Live Local Act. Thank you for your service. Thank you for being here. Next step, we have the Interfaith Alliance of Southwest Florida, followed by Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida. Good morning. Good morning, asking a preacher to talk for 90 seconds. This is a tough route. I'm Reverend Craig Cranstein. I'm the vice president of the Interfaith Alliance of Southwest Florida. We represent Collier and Lee County. And I thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning. We are folks of many faith and belief traditions who come together to support public education, religious freedom, and treating all people with dignity and respect. We believe public education is the foundation of democracy, and we support this delegation's work in making sure that all of our Lee County students receive an excellent education. We appreciate the legislation last session to leave the school's start times in local control. As people of many faiths and beliefs, we celebrate the uniqueness of each individual. We believe diversity is essential to a vibrant society. We value the immigrant and migrant workers who are trying to make a better life for themselves and their children while providing essential services that keep our community functioning. We value our LGBTQ plus siblings and their contributions to our community and our economy. We recognize a large number of bills are going to be filed each session. We appreciate the effort and the amount of work that you all go to undertake and review those bills. We would simply ask as you do that that you keep a few things in mind, how will that legislation affect all of Floridians? Are there groups like LGBTQ individuals, persons of color, families living in poverty or immigrants who will be disproportionately affected by a bill? Will that legislation enhance all the lives or enhance just some lives and cause significant harm to others? And is the legislation necessary? We thank you for your time today and we appreciate all that you do in representing all of us. Thank you. Thank you. You almost made it. You're at a minute 50. You did good. Next up, we have goodwill industries of South Las Florida. Don't believe that they're here. Next up, we have Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation. Welcome. So, good morning, members of the delegation, Senate President. Thank you for this opportunity to speak with you all today. I'm Matt DePalis. I'm the Environmental Policy Director for the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation. We're an organization that started as a land trust back in the 60s and has since grown into an organization that's really focused on protecting and caring for Southwest Florida's coastal ecosystems and everything that goes along with that. As we know that the coastal ecosystems of Southwest Florida are much more than just the environment that we're fighting to protect. It's the communities that live and work and play in those areas and it's the businesses and economies that rely on healthy ecosystems in order to perpetuate into the future. So, I'm here to present our legislative priorities to you today. They're contained in your packet. I'm not going to go to all of them in detail and to try to respect the 90 seconds. But I think that there's a lot in there that we're going to be asking for further appropriations like a lot of the people in the room today. It's important that we keep Everglades restoration moving forward, especially as we're looking at dry dry season with the Leninia. We already have the lake pretty low. I think it's going to be a stressful year for the estuary, even with the completion of the C-43 reservoir. So hopefully that'll get up and running and through its testing phase. But further appropriations for Everglades funding is going to be great. In addition to that, though, instead of just thinking about what funding is going to be important to get through this budget, to get through this legislative session, I'd really challenge all of you to think about what the investment you're making in the future of Florida is going to be this session. What are we doing up in Tallahassee that's not just going to get us across that finish line for the chaotic legislative session that I can't believe is already back on us again. But what are we doing for future generations of Florida? How are we going to protect these resources in this state so that my children and my grandchildren can live, work, and play and thrive in these environments just like I and all of us here do today? So I think that means thinking about what the resources we have and what we're able to protect going forward, what we have an opportunity to make sure isn't going to go away. So that means thinking about conservation land, not as just something that we can get future development potentially out of. But what are the services that it provides to us? What are the water management, water filtration, wildlife habitat, carbon capture? All of these ecosystem services that are really important to us today that we are only beginning to quantify and being able to quantify. But what are those going to look like for future generations as well? So I think if we can focus on water quality resilience and think not just about how do we get a bill across the finish line tomorrow? But what are we doing today to make sure that not only are we not putting a burden on future generations to try to fix the mistakes that we could be making. But what are we doing to strengthen those generations and strengthen Florida for future Floridians as well? Thank you very much. Next up we have the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, followed by STEMCAT, followed by the Florida Self Advocate Network Organization. Good morning. Good morning, Jay Johnson. On behalf of the Florida Restaurant Lodging Association Lee County chapter where I'm the president, I'd like to highlight a few of our legislative agenda items for this session. First of all, the tourist development tax, which is designed to promote and market tourism, which is the largest industry in the state of Florida. We, of course, support keeping that the way it is. We support however we do, support transparency, accountability and clarification of administrative use and where places that we've been off the track and not promoting. So you got me 90 seconds thick and you got me messed up. But we want to make sure that's used to continue to promote tourism and to continue to support Florida's largest business. We want to talk about food additives and labeling. There is discussion about adding state specific standards for food additives and labeling. And our concern is that if we do not match our neighboring states that will run into supply sourcing and compliance issues. We look and make sure we're similar to our neighboring states. And if we do make Florida specific asks as far as food labeling and additives that we have a very long runway in order to comply with that. Hemp beverages have been gaining popularity in our marketplace. If the state chooses to make those beverages legal, I'd like to ask that we. The system that's in place for alcohol be adapted and expanded to include these beverages. So we maintain on time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here today. I appreciate it. STEMCAT followed by Florida's self-advocate network and organization. Welcome. Good morning, Madam President. Thank you. And thank you, delegates, for having me. And by the way, I understand your smile means your time is up. My name is Dr. Jessie Bryce. I'm the CEO and founder of STEMCAT Established in 2015. I'm a proud native of Fort Myers. And after serving the US military and multiple combat tours, I decided to come back home with admission to build opportunities and community through innovation, education and resilience. Today, I ask you to invest in the STEMCAT Fieldhouse, a 20,000 square foot workforce community resident center that is designed to prepare lead kind of residents for future of work. This is not just a building. This is a blueprint. The citizens of Lee County can come and train across Southwest Florida, 67% of STEM related jobs are unfulfilled in the healthcare, hospitality and industry. At this time, there's 15% of graduating GED and youth that are uncertain about their futures with another 35% that can't afford to attend college. The STEMCAT, along with Lee County Schools, FSW and FGCU, are bridging these gaps. We provide hands-on training, certification and apprenticeship right here at home, helping our residents build sustainable careers without leaving Lee County. Inside this facility, it'll be 10 stated arch STEM labs, five healthcare and mental health suites dedicated to adult learning, youth development, and now more important than ever, disaster response. The Fieldhouse will serve as both a training hub and a community lifeline, a place where people can learn, heal and grow. Our goal and ROI is not just for workforce development. It's for workforce retention and community resilience. By training, keeping talent here in Southwest Florida, we strengthen families, fill local jobs, and build a stronger regional economy. We invite you, the delegates, to stand with us to invest in a project that reflects courage, innovation, and the heart of this community. Together, we can build a field of dreams, a place where Lee County's next generation doesn't find a job, but they discover their purpose. Thank you. Thank you for being here today. I'd purpose it and look up to see your smile. Thank you for being here. Next up, we have the Florida Self-Advocate Network Organization, followed by Naples Pathway Coalition. Good morning. I'm just making sure it was still morning. Good morning to everyone on the board as well as the senators, mayors, and legislators in the AIDS. First of all, it's Florida Self-Advocate Network with the D as well as under the Florida Development Disability Council as well. We also work with ARC and the local is the log as well. And I also want to thank you for continuing to provide programs for the individuals, for the individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and also on how the disability is able to choose services. And on that note, also here to speak up for, as well as for more available affordable transportation to schools, doctors, appointments, training, and employment. Because they do want to work, they do want to give, they do want to work, as well as get back to the community. Not just, they're not as some people think they just take, take, take, but they do want to give back and use there what they can do. And they can do a lot too. And they want to give back and to use their abilities to give back as well. And they don't see the disability as not able to do what they see as a unique way of doing things and able to give back and to provide support to others, also as well as reducing the wait list for individuals with intellectual development disabilities to be able to find services. And able to find services quickly, some is still looking, some is still waiting for the services and to get off and to eliminate the wait list. And we thank you for your continued support with the SB to help eliminate the wait list, but we still need more help to eliminate the wait list. And to doing it down to where there's no wait list, so those that come in and stuff asking for services to be able to provide the services without barely any retaped. And as well as to be able to continue at home with continual support, with assistance with employment, education, budgeting, and to be able to give back to the communities, to stop staring at people that are different and unique. But it's okay to ask them the uniqueness and the difference as well, and in some way my sharing their stories. And so I thank you for allowing me to speak and to address the needs as well as the continued support. And thanks to various employers of public and warm up that are willing to take the chance to allow them to work and to gain employment. And permit abilities and employable skills. Thank you for being here. Naples Pathway Coalition followed by YMCA of Southwest Florida. Hello. Good morning. Good to see you all. Thank you for the opportunity to come in and address you. I'm here to talk about hands-free Florida and the need for hands-free cell phone use while driving. 34 other states already have this law on every road in Florida that is only the law in school and construction zones. On average, every day, every day, 9 or 10 people die on Florida roads every single day. And beyond that, 42 serious injuries happen on our roads every day. These are not just broken arms. These are traumatic brain injuries. These are crushed injuries. These are injuries that prevent people from being able to work again or live independently. And the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has said that two-thirds of these crashes, two-thirds of these fatalities, two-thirds of these injuries are caused by distracted driving. This is not just a habit people have gotten used to doing. This is deadly reckless behavior while we are driving 8,000-10,000-pound weapons on our roads. If we're not concerned about the lives lost or the injuries, the cost to our economy, it's roughly about $340 billion across the nation, corrects do that. So that is from the hospital stays that inability to work moving forward. That's a huge cost. The only argument I've heard against this legislation is government shouldn't be in our vehicles. Well does that mean that we're going to repeal the seatbelt law? Are we going to allow open alcohol in our cars again? Or do we not have to follow speed limits and posted signs? We not have to have a valid driver's license? Of course not. If people could just responsibly put their phones down and just drive, we wouldn't have this issue. There needs to be consequences. There needs to be a law to get people to curb this deadly behavior. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Next up we have YMCA of Southwest Florida, followed by the Lee County Alliance of the Arts, followed by Jim Nathan. Good morning. Good morning, Chair. This thing was delegation. On behalf of the YMCA of Southwest Florida, my name is Chris Samp. I'm happy to be here this morning to talk to you about several opportunities with the YMCA. The YMCA is more than a gym. We are a non-profit organization serving up 42,000 individuals each year across eight counties, including Lee. Our mission is to ensure that every child and family, regardless of their background or income, has access to programs that build healthier bodies, stronger minds and brighter futures. One of our top priorities is literacy. Today in Florida, only 52% of children are reading on grade level. There are Y-reads program reading buddies and before and after school academic support, we are changing that. Last year, 96% of Y-read students advance to the next grade level and 99% improve their reading skills. We're committed to water safety. Florida tragically leads the nation in drownings for children under the age of four. Last night, a six-year-old drowned right here in Fort Myers. That's why water safety is part of our strategic plan. Last year, the Y-provided more than 4,000 swim lessons and is working toward a goal of 16,000 lessons in three years to reduce these preventable tragedies. In addition, we fight hunger. With one in five Florida children facing food insecurity, the Y-provided over 539,000 healthy meals and snacks in 2024. Through rural feeding sites, summer meal programs and an upcoming mobile market, we will be making sure that no child has to learn or grow on an empty stomach. These programs are possible because of the strong community partnerships and leaders like you. That's why today I ask for your support as we pursue expansion plans in Lee County to ensure more children and families have access to literacy, water safety, healthy meals and the life changing programs that the YMCA provides. Thank you for being here. Next up, we have Lee County Alliance for the Arts, followed by Jim Nathan, followed by Sandra Polk. Welcome. Hey there. Welcome. Thanks for the time. And thanks for all your leadership in the community and Rhett Bessbizito, your staff kills it. So thank you to them too for helping to organize all this. I'm here today and I'm the Evolves, the executive director for the Alliance for the Arts. And I'm here today to support investment, state investment in the arts and culture, specifically in our local arts and culture community. Many of whom are here today, so shout out to Sydney Burn Davis Arts Center leaders, the Florida Reptory Theatre, Gulf Coast Symphony for folks being here and in support of this message. Investments in art and culture, investments in our local economy and quality life. From tourism to education, to the development of an innovative economy, art and culture. Leaders are a key partner with our local business community. For those elected officials who've been engaged in the evolving investment in art and culture here, I want to thank you for stepping into this. And I hope that we can continue to have conversations this year as the session continues this conversation. Florida's arts and culture programs have, Florida's arts and culture grant programs have been designed and refined over 26 years to ensure a responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars and we honor that commitment. Please know that there are 16 local art and culture organizations in Lee County that have submitted grant applications this year in the amount of $1.4 million. Studies show that every dollar invested in arts and culture organizations returns between 7 to 10 times that money to our local economy. This important funding supports our museums, theaters, orchestras, art centers and more who in turn support our hotels, restaurants and schools. Recent data shows that nonprofit art sectors contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to Lee County economy. At the end of the day, this story is pretty simple when it comes to arts and culture funding and that is it's good for everyone. It's good for students and schools, entrepreneurs and families, all of us benefit from a more vibrant economy and a more vibrant community and thriving economy. We're here today to say thank you for everybody's time and to let you know that on any day, we're here to be a partner with you all to advance our community. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here today. Next up, we have Jim Nathan, followed by Sandra Falk, followed by Joyce Kempana. Welcome. Good morning. Hi. It's still morning. Okay. Thank you. I'm Jim Nathan. I'm representing Floridans for democracy and also a new national group called Grant Parents for Vaccines. I want to thank you all for being here and for hanging in to those seats for so long and for Kathleen Pasadomo for 15 years of incredible leadership. For the 40 years that I served as CEO for Lee Health and served with Lee Health, I rarely had to experience the diseases that my family and I experienced as a child in the 1940s. These are diseases that are now beginning to return. I ask you to please keep Florida's vaccine mandates in place. Removing them places our children, our seniors, and the most vulnerable at an unacceptable risk. We've already seen the danger. Diseases we thought that were gone are now resurgent. Nationally, measles cases are the highest in decades. Minnesota County vaccination rates for kindergarteners have dropped to 80% well below the 95% rates and threshold for community immunity statewide. We are dangerously close to this breakdown at 89%. This isn't only a health issue. It's an economic issue. The post prosperity relies on tourism, widespread outbreaks would severely damage our economy, just like a hurricane or red tide. Public safety and personal freedom must go hand in hand. We accept rules to protect each other every day from seatbelts to building codes, even surgeons wearing gloves and masks. Vaccines are no different. They keep our community healthy and our lives normal. Equating vaccine mandates to slavery is cruel and it is wrong. Vaccines do save lives. Please base your decisions on science and experience. Thank you very much. Thanks for the opportunity. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Sandra Falk. I'm a retired operating room nurse here asking for your strong support of House Bill 93 Senate Bill 162 protection from surgical smoke. Having been here before, I'm going to stick to the highlights and I have right handouts for you. While our patients will always be our top priority, their exposure to smoke is in most cases a matter of hours. However, our operating room personnel are exposed to surgical smoke eight to 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and 52 weeks a year. No mask provides 100% protection. Surgical masks are primarily for droplets and splashes but not for blocking the small particles and surgical smoke. Babies born by C-section are no longer taken to a nursery as in the past. They remain in the operating room skin to skin with their mommies, thus being exposed to more surgical smoke than their little lungs should. In a recent survey among top health issues experienced by personnel in the OR, they are emphysema asthma, chronic bronchitis, reports of HPV throw cancer, HIV, HPV. And the like headaches, eye irritation, throat irritation and cancer are also being reported. Advanced technology is now available to capture and dispose of smoke as hazardous waste. However, evacuation is not done consistently but with the passage of these bills, anywhere surgery is performed in Florida, anywhere. Patients and staff will be protected. Our bills have passed every committee unanimously and no one has ever spoken against the bills in any committee. They have just not gotten over the finish line and we are hoping with your help this will be the year. As of today, 20 states have passed protection from surgical smoke with no adverse actions to any hospitals or surgery centers and they're now protecting the lives of patients and health care personnel like. They include Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. According to the Florida Center of Nursing, there will be a shortage of 65,000 nurses in our state by 2035. We can no longer avoid the inevitable. On behalf of over half a million Floridians, I thank you once again for your support of this workplace safety hazard and for supporting HP-93 and SB-162. And I also ask you to please consider co-sponsoring these bills. I would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Next up, we have Joyce Campana, followed by Joyce Alexicus. Good morning. Thank you. My name is Joyce Campana. I'm a resident of Fort Myers. I'm here today to let you know that there are enough critical issues to address without adding ridiculous, political games and antics and governing by ideology. Citizens who pay your salaries want to be respected and engage with their elected officials decision-making process at all levels of government, not just your level or the state level. Please spend less time worrying about what road to rename and governing by dogma and ideology instead of governing for the good of the people. Most of what I've heard here today, the requests are for the good of the people and the public. This coming legislative session, I'd like you to please address the following. One, rising property insurance costs. And I don't mean by bringing in fly-by-night insurance companies. Two, maintain local home rule, even if it's in opposition to the governor's desire. Totally eliminating property taxes at one time is dangerous. I would recommend piecemeal implementation of changes, changes to the homestead credit. Three, maintain the integrity of our elections and voting rights. Four, you all took the oath of office to uphold the U.S. Constitution and should wait to conduct a 2030 census before redistricting. Five, continue to support ways to protect life and property from changing weather. Six, support clean water and air. You work for us, the people, not big corporations, not developers, and not only one party. Do not be afraid to reach across the aisle to negotiate for the betterment of the populace. My way or the highway mindset is not working at the federal level, and it's not working at the local level. I encourage you to avoid that mindset. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Next up, we have Joy Alexicus, followed by Dr. George Alexicus. Welcome. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Joy Alexakis. I'm a Floridian, a mother, a professional, and a doctoral student focused on child safety. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today about the urgent need to rethink Florida's juvenile sex offender registry. Imagine being punished your entire life for a mistake made as a child when your brain was still developing. Today, nearly one quarter of the people in Florida's sex offender registry were added for offenses committed as juveniles. Few labels carry a harsher or more lasting stigma. While the original legislation was intended to protect the public, it could not have foreseen the lifelong collateral consequences for these youth. Various to employment, housing, education, and community reintegration. The reality is that more than 97% of youth adjudicated for sexual offenses never reoffend. Yet they remained trapped in an invisible incarceration, governed by policies designed for adults, contradicting the very foundation of the juvenile justice system, which recognizes developmental differences, seals juvenile records, and emphasizes rehabilitation. Viaable options for reform exist. This isn't about leniency, it's about being smart on policy, guided by evidence-based data, and committed to both justice and fiscal responsibility. Thank you for your time today. Thank you for being here. Dr. George, I'm sorry. I apologize. I'll exact this. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Dr. George Alixakis. I'm a Lee County resident, and I want to thank the entire esteemed delegation for their service. Florida spends roughly half a billion dollars each year maintaining its sex offender registry. Yet, research shows the registry does not improve public safety. It often increases homelessness, unemployment, and family instability, undoubtedly costing more money and social harm. Florida's registry lists over 86,000 names, but state data reveal that over 60% of those individuals are either incarcerated, deceased, or no longer living in Florida. The registry numbers do not reflect who is actually here, undermining both credibility and cost effectiveness. Across the state, multiple agencies share registry duties, from the FDA and telehassy, to sheriffs, offices, and probation departments in all 67 counties. Each spending valuable time and resources maintaining overlapping information. By improving coordination and accuracy, we can reduce wasteful spending, strengthen data integrity, and focus resources where the truly enhanced safety. Two opportunities for improvement exist. One, make inactive the records of those who are deceased and incarcerated are no longer Florida residents. Two, streamline operations across agencies to ensure accuracy and fiscal responsibility. Florida deserves a system that is transparent, effective, and trustworthy. Making the registry accurate isn't about leniency, it's about advancing smart data driven policy that strengthens public safety and public trust. It's all of ours, all of our collective responsibilities and obligations. It's our money, you should be spent wisely. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Next up, we have Marsha Ellis, followed by Pamela Gill, followed by Michael Thompson. Thank you. Good morning. Marsha Ellis for the record. I'm speaking in regard to Senate Bill 180, which was enacted last session. Specifically, the need to amend or revoke sections 18 and 28 that strip communities of home rule powers. Those simply must be amended or revoked. The unintended consequences and the overreach do things like preempt, local government. There are other bills that are out there that have been enacted and proposed. And the language that we're paying attention to include expanding administrative powers. These diminished transparency and remove opportunity for the public to be engaged in local decision making. Language that specifically takes away compatibility and consideration of land use decisions. And I ask that you think about how Senate Bill 180 has nullified the ability of us to learn in our community in regard to flood protections. This is a matter of life and death. The way that Senate Bill 180 interprets local decision making in their normal business is being burdensome or more restrictive. Effectively makes learning from disaster illegal when it is operationalized. And that is that is really disastrous for communities. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Next up we have Pamela Gill followed by Michael Thompson. Good morning. Good morning. And thank you for allowing me to speak. I'm here to speak on behalf of the National Popular Vote in the State Compact. We're asking to co-sponsor Bill 57. What the IC does is instruct the member states to award the electoral college electors to the candidate who wins the National Popular Vote. I'm sorry. The presidential winner usually has averaged in the last nine years for four million votes. This allows the states to give the votes to the candidate who was won the Popular Vote. Each state has the right to the Constitution to decide how to award their electors. The state's political identity includes all its citizens, not just those who vote in the majority. Each vote equal and relevant in every election. That's the will of the people. Today 17 states plus the state of I'm sorry and plus Washington DC have voted to pass this bill, this bill. The National Popular Vote will guarantee the candidate with the most votes the presidency. It makes every vote relevant in every presidential election. Honors the will of the American people works within the constitutional framework and establishes that has been established by the founders. Does not need requirement of amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Thank you for your time. Next up we have Michael Thompson. Hi, Michael couldn't be here today, so I identify as him, just kidding. My name is Christopher V. I am a lifelong citizen of Lee County, Florida and a mother of two. So about five years ago, a good friend and I started a small nonprofit called Parents for Informed Consent, Southwest, Florida, where our main goal is to advocate for parental rights, most importantly for healthcare decisions. We're lucky because Florida has made amazing strides in protecting parental rights, especially when it comes to healthcare decisions. Specifically, I think we were one of the first states to ban vaccine passports and then most recently eliminated fluoride from our waterways which was awesome. One of the things though that we still need to work on is the vaccine mandates for children to attend school. So we were able to eliminate vaccine passports during the code error for adults not to get vaccinated to attend work and to work in an office. So where is the difference when it comes to children in school? When I go into my office, no one is asking me for my vaccine status. When I apply, no one asks me for my doctor's record. So I don't see the correlation between why children have to be vaccinated to be in a similar setting than adults. Also, with vaccine mandates and the science, the science does change. During the COVID era, we were talking about or we were told that you have to wear masks to protect each other. And then as science evolves, we start to see that that is not the case. So one of the things that I ask is that you just support the certain general stance in eliminating vaccine mandates for children to attend school. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Next up, we have Anne Sullivan. Good morning. Okay. So my commentary is to inform decision making for House Bill 45 and Senate Bill 212. The number of people labeled as sex offenders in Florida has grown dramatically because Florida has created 142 sexual offenses, many of which are not offenses in other states. The sex offender registry originated about eight rape and physical harm offenses were on it. Now people are on the registry who are trying at home to help their autistic child who is inappropriately touching someone and they delay going to therapy. Both parent and child are on the registry. A person who inadvertently or out of curiosity clicked on a sex ad and didn't delete it. Met someone and had a consensual sex only to find out they were a minor. Sexed friends, this is a real problem with our middle schoolers and high schoolers. Unwittingly committed an offense and early sign of dementia. Given the broad range of Florida offenses, recivism is 1% according to FDC, this Florida Department of Corrections independent data analysis. What can we do? Encourage safety. Let's save all children, not just one, through education for sexual abuse prevention in our schools and churches. Two, after a person has completed accountability, prison and mandated treatment comes a responsibility on society's part to prevent future offenses by encouraging successful reintegration so that people can be a positive force in our communities, not a liability. And three, allow law enforcement to focus on high risk cases, investigate new crimes, clear the rape kit backlog and to fund educational prevention programs. So thank you. Thank you for being here. Okay, so we're going to move on to the comment cards now. Again asking you to please keep it to 90 seconds. First up, we have Kathleen Mayo, followed by Nancy Terriri, followed by Greg, Greg who lives on Callusa Creek. I'm sorry. Good morning. Good morning, chair and members of the delegation. My name is Kathleen Mayo and I serve as president of the local chapter of the national organization for women. I'm here today on behalf of women, children and families across Florida whose lives are being put at risk by recent funding cuts and the repeal of critical protections. Over the past year, we've seen the dismantling of programs that safeguard maternal health, domestic violence survivors, and children and poverty. Cuts to healthy start and family planning services means fewer prenatal visits, more preventable complications, and higher infant mortality rates. The repeal of local protections for survivors of abuse has left women with fewer safe housing options and longer waits for crisis services. These are not abstract policy shifts. They are decisions with immediate, devastating consequences. In our own community, I've met mothers forced to choose between paying rent and buying medication for their children. I've spoken with survivors who returned to unsafe homes because shelter beds were eliminated. I've seen the ripple effect in our schools where children carry the trauma of instability into the classroom. Florida's children are our future, and women are the backbone of our families and our economy. When we strip away their safety nets, we are not saving money, we are shifting the costs to emergency rooms, to overburden nonprofits, and to the next generation. I urge you to restore funding for maternal and child health programs, protect and expand domestic violence services, and reject any further rollbacks of laws that keep women and children safe. Our communities cannot thrive when their most vulnerable members are left unprotected. Thank you for your time. I look forward to working with you to ensure Florida is a place where every woman and child can live with dignity, safety and opportunity. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Next, Nancy Teriri, followed by Greg, followed by Tim Hennessy. Good morning. Hi, good morning. I'm Nancy Teriri. I'm here today because I'm concerned about hope. I think we're having a hard time being hopeful many of us these days. And today, I'm very glad to hear so many good programs being talked about, good progress being made, and requests for help. I think that's what we want to see from our legislators. We do not want to see more political forcing of issues that don't benefit people. I follow closely what's going on in Tallahassee and what's going on in Lee County, and I still have some hope, hope that you will strengthen our public schools, hope that you will protect our water and environment, and stop unlimited growth from doing the damage it's doing, hope that our hardworking immigrant families can live here safely, hope that our LGBTQ neighbors have the same rights as others, and can live without fear, hope that health care has not taken away from Floridians, including our reproductive health care. You know, 57% of Floridians signed petitions and voted to say that we should have our reproductive rights in Florida, but you took that hope away. Our governor took that hope away. That's the kind of thing that frustrates us, and I really hope that all of you will become people who care about everyone in Florida, and will guarantee us more hope and keep that hope alive, rather than killing it through legislation that harms individuals and families. Thank you. Thank you for being here, and next up, Greg. Hello, sir. Hello. My apologies. Thank you for being here. Not at all, no worries. That name does scare many, many folks. It's pronounced long in Hagen, just like Copenhagen, but it's 11 letters and took my children years to learn how to spell it. Thank you for being here. Thank you for all your service, delegates. My name is Greg Long in Hagen. I am the producing artistic director of Florida Reptory Theatre for the record. And I just wanted to piggyback a little bit on what Niels Voles was saying earlier. He was representing all the arts here in Lee County and in Southwest Florida. And we've had several studies through this independent organization out of Washington, D.C., called Americans for the Arts. We now are Americans for the Arts Six, I believe. And we really are an economic generator. Forget about the 100,000 patrons that come through our doors. Forget about the 45,000 children that we serve. I'm talking about Florida Reptory Theatre now, through our Theatre in the Schools programs, our camps, our conservatory. We know that 75% of the folks that come to Florida Rep go out onto the streets in downtown Fort Myers and by food and drink and things like that. And with Florida Rep, we know it's about $3 million just from our organization. So when you add up all of the arts organizations in Lee County, it's a big number. It's a lot that gets poured back into the community. And I think Niels referenced the $7 to $9 for every dollar that's spent, every public dollar that's spent. We inject another $7 to $9 above that back into the community. So we just ask you to be cognizant of all of that when you see things come across your desk or when we're appealing on arts day or any other day for funding. It's a tough time for the arts right now all over the country, many of you probably get that. But we really are worth considering in terms of the economic development of Southwest Florida. And thank you for my time today. Thank you for being here. Next up, we have Tim Hennessy, followed by Andrew Kurtz, followed by Susan Vellani. Good morning. Good morning, chair. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Tim Hennessy. And I'm here on behalf of Nikki Jones in support of the Shane Jones Act, House Bill 229. And I'm just going to read a brief statement from her. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Oh, sorry, scrolling down. This bill is named for Shane Jones, United States Air Force veteran. My husband and father who was tragically killed in traffic accident caused by someone in this country unlawfully and drinking driving. Someone who had a previous encounters with law enforcement that could have prevented this tragedy. The Shane Jones Act is a simple and purpose but powerful and in principle. It holds local agencies accountable when they choose not to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Under this bill, any agency that refuses to comply with state statute and existing agreements would face a $10,000 fine. Funds that would go to support families like Shane, like Shane's, and mine, who suffer from preventable losses. It also gives victims families like mine the right to seek justice through civil action when government negligence is enforcing immigration law contributes to the death of a loved one. This is not about politics. It's about accountability, public safety, and respect for the rule of law. It's about saying that when the system fails to act, families should not bear that cost alone. The Shane Jones Act honors one family's loss, mine, by ensuring that others will not have to endure the same heartache. It's fair, it's reasonable, and it reinforces our shared belief that laws only matter when they are followed. I urge you to support House Bill 229 for Shane, my family, and for Ever Floridian who deserves a government that acts for responsibility and compassion. For more information, please contact Staper as a representative Bernie Jocks. And hopefully, it seemed to be announced state or Senate Bill sponsor. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Andrew Kurtz, followed by Susan Villani, followed by Chuck Sobeck. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. Andrew Kurtz, on the president and CEO of the Gulf Coast Symphony, Lee County's second largest nonprofit performing arts organization. Each year, we employ 24 full and part-time staff and engage over 150 musicians, actors, designers, and directors in producing more than 200 performances throughout Southwest Florida. The $3 million annual budget nearly all which stays in Florida, most right here in Lee County, were proud to be both a cultural and economic engine for our community. Our audiences spend money in local restaurants, hotels, and shops multiplying that impact. As I like to say, people may come for the beaches but they stay for the arts. We're deeply grateful for the legislature for having restored $27 million in arts funding last year. But despite 16 Lee County organizations qualifying, only two received support, leaving our county, the eighth most populous in Florida, with just 1% of the allocation. When you invest in the arts, you invest in economic growth, tourism, education, and quality of life. The arts help attract residents, business, and talent, the very foundation of a thriving Lee County. So as the next budget is crafted, I ask that you support full funding for the Florida Arts and Cultural Grants, and ensure that Lee County receives its fair share of that investment. Together we can make Lee County and the state of Florida not only a great place to visit, but the best place to live, work, and create. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Next up we have Susan Valani, followed by Chuck Soback, followed by Tara Jenner. Good morning. Good morning. I'm Susan Valani, and as a 45-year resident of Lee and Call Your County. I especially thank you, Senator Pasadomo, for your service, and all of you. It's not easy. I'm going to read this as fast as I can. I'm asking today for your support and sponsorship of a long-term sentencing act that is in drafting in the house right now. It needs a sponsor also. My family, through friends of our church adopted an incarcerated man into our family going on 10 years ago. One of the reasons we chose Ronnie was to support him because I couldn't believe with the criminal history of daytime burglaries, nobody home, stolen vehicle shoplifting, had a sentence of life without parole. He was a drug addict. Today, he is in his 22nd year of a life sentence, with many others similar situations. Surprisingly, parole exists now in our state only for those who have committed homicides, murder, and capital crimes from 1983 to 94. They get parole. Non-lethal offenders are given life sentences, and there is no parole. Some of you are on the appropriations committee for criminal justice, and you heard the secretary. He's desperate. He says the department is imploding and even offered his resignation. It's a mess. It's crumbling. Along with the secretary, conservative, gogators. I love Trump, and I'm happy to say that. But we have a third component in our criminal justice system, and that's our prisons. And we are not, we're law and order, but we're not supporting that component. They're in desperate need. Our prisons are unsafe. Our secretary says they're unsustainable for both staff and incarcerated. He stated we're not going to be able to meet constitutional requirements for the care and custody of the incarcerated. Currently, our prisons are severely understaffed with 50% of that staff on probationary status. So they're understaffed. They have no experience. Half of them. The infrastructure, we paid 2.2 million for a report that told us in 2023, is a need of 2.2 billion. We need, we need to help them. We need to help our department of corrections, and still be proud to say we're all about law and order. But there's that back end. A former drug addict should, with property crimes, should not have the same sentence as the parkland shooter. There's a disparity. Lastly, we are an immediate need of an ombudsman bill to oversee and provide some transparency in our prisons. The inspector general's office and DOC work together. There is no oversight, and corruption is running amuck. I'll leave it at the end. Thank you. Thank you for being here today. Next up, we have Chuck Soback, followed by Tara Jenner, followed by Victoria Redstahl. Chuck? I don't see Chuck. Okay. Ms. Jenner? Welcome. I'll cut right to the chase. I have one ask and one invite. I respectfully request consideration for a modification to Florida's jury duty exemption statute and the accompanying form to include home educators who are not employed full time. Under Florida statute, a parent who has custody of a child under six and is not employed full time may be excused from jury duty. This exemption is based on the assumption that after age six, the child would likely be attending school during the day and thereby reduce the hardship on the parent for child care. However, that assumption does not apply to home educating families who continue to provide instruction in the home setting well beyond that age. Also under Florida statute, home education is one of five lawful ways to meet Florida's compulsory attendance requirements. Unlike public private or charter schools, home educating parents have no substitutes unique curriculum and assume daily instructions of their own and their academic schedules often extend beyond district calendars. As the number of home educating families continue to grow each year, this issue will increasingly create a hardship not only on those families, but also on the courts in processing exemptions and scheduling requests. So accordingly, if you know anybody who's willing to sponsor this bill, call me because I respectfully request the jury duty exemption form and the statute be amended to expressly include home educators who are not fully employed full time now for the invitation. The Lee County GOP is hosting its third annual Veterans Day breakfast on Saturday, November 15th, featuring an excuse expression bad ass veteran, Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins is our guest speaker. This event supports scholarships for outstanding Lee County J ROTC candidates and tickets are available by going to lead GOP.org and Senator and representative. I have a handout with this information for you afterwards. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Victoria Redstall followed by John King. Victoria? Oh, yeah, no problem. Thank you for listening to me. First of all, I'd like to thank you each and every one of you for helping in past troopers law and dexter's law. Thank you for all you've done for animals in Lee County. There are many things that we're striving for and have concerns about the Lee County domestic animal shelter. The nature is top of that list. So far, this year Lee County has put down 755 cats and 355 dogs. There was so much more that could have been done to save these totally adoptable animals lives. We know that there are certain circumstances when they have to be euthanized, but when you euthanize a totally adoptable animal, there's no excuse, especially when they haven't had their adoption floor full in an entire year. Of plenty of room, the LCDAS has not had their adoption floor full from October 24th of October 25th, that's one full year. And for the most part, there have been under 20 dogs on their adoption floor. However, last year from January 2024 to October 24th, there were consistently 45 to 68 dogs on that adoption floor. When asked why the huge difference from 24 to 25, we don't get a proper answer other than the intake is down. Look at the statistical numbers on their website, you can clearly see that the intake was not down in a lot of those months. It was actually up, up over 2024, up. There are so many ways when they have the room, they have the budget to help these poor innocent animals. If a dog is food aggressive and it goes on and on like that, I know I've got just three minutes, I have to be quick here. Sorry about that. The policy of counting Sundays and holidays as a stray hold is very unacceptable. For example, it gives so many animal owners such a small amount of time to find their pets. Lee County does not answer the phone on Saturdays, even though they're open for just a few hours. And there's no chance of anyone calling you to find out if their animal is still there. That's if it's not chipped. Sundays, they're closed all days, of course they don't answer the phone. So that could put a dog on a stray hold or a cat on a stray hold on holidays. Those days are counted. So basically, if an animal was found on a Friday afternoon, they would have it in their system in the domestic animal services. From the Saturday, Friday Saturday and Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, they could kill them for no reason whatsoever. There are currently five pet stores in Lee County that sell puppies. It's outrageous considering the fact that we all know it promotes outrageous breeding and puppy mills. Because these stores are steadily selling puppies, Lee County is putting down more and more of these adoptable animals. There are currently 75 cities and counties here in Florida who do not allow pet stores selling puppies or kittens. I wish Lee County could do the same. I truly believe if we all work together and get to the root cause of why we have some of these problems in the first place, we could make it a much better world for these innocent animals who have no voices. Thank you. Thank you for being here today. John King followed by Latasha Cohen followed by Tim Richie. Good morning. I'm John R. King, proudly celebrating King's Day every day. I have the pleasure of serving as four miles beach council member. However, since May of this year, it's been a mixed bag. That's when the recall process began against me. Two former council members, one bitter because I beat him. The other acquitter because he didn't want to fill out the ethics form six, filed three false allegations against me and another counselor. The allegations fit into the recall statute, but we're merely a bait and switch to recall us for a legitimate council vote that they did not approve of. Because of deficiencies in the state statute, our accusers did not have to show a modicum of proof to drag our names and reputations through the mud. Please correct that. In addition, under this current statute, a 15% minority can force an election on the majority of voters. This minority rule amounted to less than 600 of the over 3,400 FNB voters and has cost my town still rebuilding after Ian, Helene, Milton and others over $46,000 in taxpayer money. Thankfully, a judge found one of the allegations against me was legally insufficient, which made the entire recall petition fatal and insufficient. However, right now, I'm in some sort of limbo as whether I remain on the recall ballot as a supervisor elections as he needs an injunction from the judge not to proceed. The other counselor is still on next Tuesday's ballot. In an age where there's an increasing anger and worse directed at public officials, I feel there will be an increased weaponization of the statute unless you act. Thank you for your time, commitment to the state and the citizens and all you've helped my community with. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Except Latasha Cohen followed by Tim Richie. Good morning. Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Latasha Cohen, and I represent the Central Florida Behavioral Health Network, Florida's largest managing entity. We oversee approximately $300 million annually, ensuring essential mental health and substance abuse services reach those most in need, including expected mothers, veterans, and individuals experiencing homelessness. With your leadership, 93% of individuals in care coordination of wood re-admission to acute care services showing the transformative care and impact of our work. We are focused on critical 2025 priorities, including housing initiatives, workforce housing, school projects, and disaster relief. These efforts address pressing needs and build long term solutions for our most vulnerable communities. Additionally, we operate efficiently, maintaining a 2.67 administrative rate, the far below the 5% allowable rate, maximizing taxpayer value. Collaboration drives our success. We look forward to working closely with you to build on these achievements and to improve the well-being of all Floridians. Thank you for your time and partnership. Thank you for being here. Next up, we have Tim Richie. Welcome. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Tim Richie, and I'm a resident of Punta Gorda Isles, and I'm known as the Citizen Waters Armed Founder and President of March Against Mosaic. I want to first thank Senator Ben Albreyton and Rep. Vanessa Oliver for coming through for the city of Punta Gorda. In our water meters, we really appreciate that. But I want to talk to you about water quality. And we have a real problem in Florida, all of Florida. I remember when I first saw Fort Myers Beach, some of the most beautiful water you could ever want to swim in. It's not that way anymore. We have a problem with toxic pollution. And we, the government, we monitor water air in land. And we monitor maximum concentration levels and daily total loads. These are very real issues. Now I'm going to jump to over development. We have over 20,000 houses for sale in Lee County right now. 12,000 in Charlotte County. I'm going to ask Senator Albreyton to maybe talk to Mosaic and revisit that idea you and I were talking about that I said perhaps they could build industrial strength, waste water facilities. That way the water can go through there. We don't need to use the NPDES permit. That way the water will stop being discharged from the creeks and streams. And to all of our waters, which wind up in our bays, our creeks, our streams, and our harbors. It's great to see all of you. I haven't seen you for a while. Miss Jenna, this is nice to see you. And please, we really need your help on the water quality crisis. And again, thank you for helping Punta Gloria. It's great to see you again. Thank you for being here. That concludes public comment. Again, thank you. Thank you all for being here today. I know that it's not easy to stand up at the microphone and I appreciate you being respectful of time so that we can make sure to hear from everyone. I think all of our offices are very accessible. Our contact information is on the House and Senate websites. We also have staff members here and if you want to set up a meeting whether it's here locally or in Tallahassee, I think I can safely speak for everyone and say we have an open door policy and we all like to continue the dialogue. So with that, concluding general comments, excuse me. Next up, we have new business, the election of a delegation chair. Is there a nomination for a new delegation chair representative Botana? You are recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. I nominate Representative Mike Gila Marno. Thank you, Representative Botana. Is there a second? Representative Martin seconds. I'm so sorry. Senator Martin. Senator Martin seconds. My apologies. Nick, can you please call the role? Are there any other nominations? Nick, can you please call the role? Senator Martin. Yes. Yes. Well, congratulations, Representative Gila Marno. You are a new delegation chair. You can't say that I'm sad about it. Again, thank you all for being here today. Have a great day. Thank you.