The Collier County Board of County Commissioners is seeking applications for positions on several advisory committees. Members of committees must reside in and be registered to vote in Collier County. Instructions on how to apply are below.

The Affordable Housing Advisory Committee has two seats expiring October 1 in the following specific categories related to affordable housing: residential home building industry, and real estate professional. This committee was created in accordance with Sect. 420.9076 Fla. Stat., to review policies, procedures, ordinances, land development regulations, and the adopted local government comprehensive plan, and to recommend specific actions or initiatives to encourage affordable housing. Terms are three years.

The Board of Building Adjustments and Appeals has two vacancies. Applicants must represent one of the following professions: a licensed plumbing or mechanical contractor, or a state licensed architect or structural engineer. This five-member board hears appeals on rejections or refusals by the Building Code Compliance Director to approve mode of construction or materials to be used in construction or alteration of a structure.  Members must be knowledgeable in the following Collier County Codes:  Florida Building Codes, Electrical Code, Fire Prevention Code, Gas Code, Mechanical Code and Swimming Pool Code.  Terms are four years.  This is a Quasi-Judicial Board.

The Code Enforcement Board has a vacant alternate seat and a vacant regular seat. This seven-member board with two alternates is composed of individuals representing the occupations of architect, business owner, engineer, general contractor, subcontractor and realtor, who are considered on the basis of their experience or interest in the areas of the codes and ordinances to be enforced.  Members are required to file a Form 1 Statement of Financial Interest each year with the Supervisor of Elections. Terms are three years.  This is a Quasi-Judicial Board.

The Collier County Planning Commission has two seats expiring October 1 for at-large environmental members. Applicants must be nominated by a Commissioner, and must have expertise in at least one of the following areas related to environmental protection and natural resources management: air quality, biology (including any of the subdisciplines such as botany, ecology, zoology, etc.), coastal processes, estuarine processes, hazardous waste, hydrogeology, hydrology, hydraulics, land use law, land use planning, pollution control, solid waste, stormwater management, water resources, or wildlife management. This committee assists in the formulation and review of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan, Land Development Code, and amendments to both, and then submits their recommendations to the Board for final decision.  Members are required to file a Form 1 Statement of Financial Interest each year with the Supervisor of Elections.  Terms are four years. This is a Quasi-Judicial Board.

The Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Advisory Committee has one vacancy. This committee’s primary responsibility is to recommend to the Board of County Commissioners an Active Properties Acquisition List with qualified purchase recommendations of environmentally sensitive lands consistent with the goals of the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Program.  Membership of the committee shall comprise broad and balanced representation including environmental and conservation interests, agricultural and business interests, educational interests, and general civic and citizen interests within the County.  Members shall have expertise, knowledge or interest in ecology, conservation of natural resources, real estate or land acquisition, land appraisal, land management, eco-tourism or environmental education.  Terms are three years.

The Contractors Licensing Board has three vacant seats: one for a building professional, and two for consumer representatives. Consumer applicants should have no ties to the construction industry. Building professional applicants should be either a licensed architect, a licensed general contractor, a licensed engineer, a licensed electrical contractor, a licensed plumbing contractor, a licensed mechanical contractor, a licensed roofing contractor, a licensed residential, or a licensed building contractor. This nine-member board was created to determine the qualifications of applicants for the various categories of the Contractors’ Certificates of Competency.  They also hold hearings to determine if a certificate of competency of any contractor, master or journeyman should be revoked. Terms are three years.  This is a Quasi-Judicial Board.

The Educational Facilities Authority has two vacancies. The purpose of this five-member authority is to assist institutions for higher education in the construction, financing, and refinancing of projects. One member shall be a trustee, director, officer, or employee of an institution for higher education located in Collier County. Terms are five years.

The Floodplain Management Planning Committee has one vacancy who is a citizen representative from the rural region of the county (east of 951). This board was created on July 25, 2006, by Resolution No. 2006-200 and amended by 2011-118 and 2016-102. This 15-member committee includes up to eight members of the public; one member from each of the following County Departments: Communications/Customer Relations, Bureau of Emergency Services, Growth Management, Public Utilities; and members from the following municipalities: City of Naples, City of Marco Island, City of Everglades. Each departmental and municipal member may also have one alternate appointed to act on their behalf in their absence. The committee will promote awareness of floodplain and flooding issues, identify known flood hazards, discuss past flooding events, assess the current floodplain and flooding issues, and set goals along with a strategy to make the community more resistant to flooding. The committee reviews and provides recommendations for floodplain management regulations, and for surface water and watershed management issues brought before it including but not limited to, matters dealing with water quality and quantity. They will also develop and, at least annually, evaluate and update the Collier County Floodplain Management Plan. Members serve at the will of the County Manager.

The Golden Gate Beautification Advisory Committee has one seat expiring in October. This five-member committee advises and recommends as to the beautification and maintenance of landscape improvements within the road right of way as described by ordinance boundaries. The committee shall prepare an itemized budget of the amount of money required to carry out the business of the committee for the next fiscal year. Members must be residents of one of the following precincts: 323, 324, 325, 326, 327, and part of 322. Terms are four years. 

The Golden Gate Estates Land Trust Committee has one seat expiring in October.  This five-member committee was created to carry out the various requirements and provisions of an Agreement relating to land conveyed to the County by Avatar Properties, Inc. (f/k/a GAC Properties, Inc.). Members must reside within one of the 5 phases within the Golden Gate Estates area. Terms are four years.

The Haldeman Creek Dredging Maintenance Advisory Committee has one vacancy. Applicants must reside within the boundaries of the MSTU. This five-member committee was created to aid and assist the Board of County Commissioners in carrying out the MSTU, to prepare and recommend an itemized budget, and to recommend work programs and priorities. Members will be appointed from different parcels, subdivisions and/or communities within the MSTU. Terms are four years.
The Health Facilities Authority has a seat expiring in October. The purpose of this five-member authority is to assist health facilities in the acquisition, construction, financing and refinancing of projects in any incorporated or unincorporated area within the geographical limits of Collier County.   Members must be Collier County residents. Terms are four years.

The Historic/Archaeological Preservation Board has two seats expiring October 1. Applicants shall have demonstrated interest in the field of historical and archaeological preservation, with expertise in one of the following categories: 1) History; 2) Archaeology; 3) Real Estate, Land Development, or Finance; 4) Architecture; 5) Law or Urban Planning; or 6) citizen-at-large. This seven-member committee is vested with the power, authority, and jurisdiction to designate, regulate, and administer historical and archaeological resources in Collier County. Terms are three years.

The Industrial Development Authority has two current vacancies, and one seat expiring in October. This five-member authority has the power to sell industrial revenue bonds. Money generated from the bonds is used to construct industrial plants, equipment and other facilities which would then be leased or sold to private industry. Terms are four years.

How to Apply:
To apply for an advisory committee vacancy, submit an application online at https://www.colliercountyfl.gov/your-government/advisory-boards/online-advisory-board-application. After you complete the application, click on “Submit Form.”  To receive an immediate e-mail confirmation that your application was received, you must include your e-mail address in the application.

Residents interested in applying for advisory committee positions may also obtain an application by calling 239-252-8400, or from https://www.colliercountyfl.gov/home/showdocument?id=25235. Please email to DL-AdvisoryBoardOn-LineApplications@colliercountyfl.gov, or mail to the attention of Wanda Rodriguez, County Attorney’s Office, 3299 Tamiami Trail East, Suite 800, Naples, Florida 34112-5746.
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Thanks for volunteering to deliver messaging to targeted registered voters!

No door knocking, no talking to voters –just drop door hangers. We find that we can deliver messages to 30 doors per hour.

We will be creating “walk books” of 300 homes or less. We will not ask you to go into gated neighborhood sor condos or long driveways–just single-family accessible homes.

We find that inaccessible dwellings make up about 30% of the households, so 300 homes might become 200. Crews of 2 people per car will be formed: one driver who works the phone tracking app and one walker who delivers the door hanger to the targeted door.

Our first messaging drive is to Hispanic households in Collier County. Our 2020 campaign is emphasizing the swing voters of Collier County.

Save the dates:

• Training day: Tuesday 10/15/19 open from 3PM to 7PM
• Training day: Saturday 10/26/19 open from 9AM to 2 PM
• Official start day: Saturday 11/2/19 (can start anytime after training)
• Target completion: Saturday 11/16/19 (door hangers delivered)
• Pizza Party: 11/17/19 Sunday Afternoon –to celebrate!

Training will take place at the Collier County Government Building, Training Room F5 (building F, 5thFloor), 3301 Tamiami Trail East.

Come to either of the training days to get set up, or we can meet your crew individually. Training and set up should take only 30 minutes.

Bring your smart phone. At training we will help you get set up on the app, link to a walk book and give you the door hangers. Coaches will man the help desk when you are in the field.

Thanks again!2020 Campaign Committee

The newly self-anointed “Squad” of freshman Democrat congresswomen Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) are singlehandedly driving the Democrats’ bus these days. Only head United States House donkey Nancy Pelosi, among all her colleagues, seems to have noticed that their guidance has given their 2020 presidential campaign vehicle the appearance of a runaway beer truck with four flat tires.

If these four “women of color” continue to lead the Democrat Party around by the nose, then next year’s presidential election could very well turn into a landslide victory for President Donald J. Trump. And how did “The Squad” rise so meteorically to this vaunted position of leadership? One of the reasons was the race card, one of the most dishonest, but effective arrows in the Dems’ quiver which has made rich people pay loads of cash, companies bow to extortion, and Republican politicians run for cover for many years just to avoid the dreaded charge.

Now what was it that the president said in his tweet that was so racist? Let’s take a look. Here’s his tweet: “Why don’t they [the squad] go back and help fix the crime-infested places from which they came.” In response, in the week that followed the word “racist” to describe that tweet was used over 2,200 times on CNN and MSNBC. Now, in fact, the tweet was inaccurate—only one member of the squad was born in a foreign country. The rest were born here. But the charge of racism over this presidential comment is bogus and the Dems know it.

It’s simply a tactic of theirs that they attach to people on the right for practically anything we say, designed to do one thing—shut us up. That’s what their “race card” is all about and nothing more. The president cleaned up his inaccurate comment the next day when he said, “If somebody has a problem with our country, if someone doesn’t want to be in our country, they should leave,” but the left-wing media ignored that clarification and continued to go postal on the bogus racism charge. Many pundits have commented effectively in defense of the president, but none, in my judgement, more so than Steve Miller, White House policy advisor and chief speech writer and it is useful here to quote him at length. Here’s what he’s had to say on the matter on “Fox News Sunday” on July 21:

I fundamentally disagree with the view that if you criticize somebody and they happen to be a different color skin, that that makes it a racial criticism. You saw from Congresswoman Pressley that if you’re brown, you have to speak like a brown person. If you’re black, you have to speak like a black person. That’s the kind of ideology the president’s rejecting. If you want to have a colorblind society, it means you can criticize immigration policy [and] people’s views, ask questions about where they’re born and not have it seen as racial. You saw the quote from Rep. Omar saying, “Some people did something about 9/11” and yes, if you watch it in context, it’s even worse. You saw the quotes from Rep. Omar, talking about how, “We talk about al Qaeda in a menacing tone, but we don’t talk about the [U.S.] army in a menacing tone,” and yes, if you watch it in context, it’s even worse. And perhaps the most shocking of all were the comments made by Ocasio-Cortez saying that our border agents are running concentration camps and, therefore, they are Nazis and everyone who supports them are Nazi sympathizers. And one more point on that that I have to say. I’m a Jew and as an American Jew I’m profoundly outraged by these comments by Ocasio-Cortez. It is a historical smear and a sinful com

ment. It minimizes the death of six million of my brothers and sisters and it paints every patriotic law-enforcement officer as a war criminal and those are the comments we need to be focusing on. These four congresswomen detest America as it is currently constructed. They want to tear down the structure of our country, they want it to be a Socialist, open borders country. If you say you want to destroy America with open borders, you cannot say you love your country. If you attack border agents, as Ocasio-Cortez has, it means you have a deep-seated hatred of the nation as it exists. That’s why you want to erase its borders, fundamentally transform the country and in the process, it doesn’t matter if Americans lose their jobs, homes, livelihoods, healthy coverage and lose their very lives. There’s a huge fundamental distinction between Donald Trump saying on the world stage that he’s going to put America first in everything we do versus the view that says that America and its citizens should never come first and that’s what were gonna take to the ballot box.

Mr. Miller and his boss could not be more right. The Socialist “squad” and the donkey herd they’re leading are trying to start a revolution to fundamentally do away with the country we on the right so love and want to keep. They’re lying to the American people. We’re not racists and we’re not Nazis. We’re traditionalists. The truly aggravating thing in all of this is seeing Republicans like South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott (the only black Republican in the Senate) side with the Dems as he did when he called the president’s tweet, “racially offensive language.” I say conservatives need to once and for all, stop falling for this phony racecard label they’ve been giving us to silence us, and stand with the president. —Tom Mullings

We want to showcase your story on why you are a Republican.

We need to tell our personal stories of why we support the republican values. What impacted your life that made you a believe and promote Republican values. We want to tell those stories locally.

Do you have a story that made you an enthusiast? Those key values include respect for the constitution, respect for life, limited government and personal responsibility. What’s your story?

Personal stories aren’t trashed by trolls on social media and can be the key to unlocking new minds that demonstrate the values you hold and why. These are the things that will attract others on a personal level. We’ll write the story, you provide the facts.