North Central Florida Regional Planning Council: Executive Director Presents Year End Wrap Up
Posted May 27, 2014 03:00 am
NCFRPC Executive Director Scott Koons gives his year-end
wrap up.
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – Last Thursday's meeting of the North Central Regional Planning Council had as the evening's keynote speaker, its Executive Director, Scott Koons. Mr. Koons told the gathering that the NCFRPC is comprised of 11 counties and 33 municipalities and is geographically the largest in the state covering 7,000 sq. miles with a population of "around 500,000."
The Council approved the FY2015 budget with a before benefits personnel expenditure of $894,900 for its 14 employees, or a mean average of $63,921 per employee.
The North Central Florida Regional Planning Council is one of eleven regional planning councils in Florida.
Chapter 163 of the Florida Statutes is the legislation which provides for the duties of the Regional Planning Councils to: review local government comprehensive plans for consistency with the state plan and strategic regional policy plans; provide for coordination of all development activities and services among local, state, regional and federal agencies; and that all state and regional agencies cooperate with units of local government in the preparation of local government comprehensive plans.
Link:
Statutory Functions: What Regional Planning Councils Do
Chapter 186 of the FL Statutes is more detailed legislation regarding the duties of the Regional Planning Councils.
There are also other statutes and a laundry list of State and Federal rules, regulations and agencies with which the Planning Councils interact. Some of these are: The Clean Water Act; Federal Home Loan Disclosure; The Census Bureau; and FL Administrative Code which requires that Planning Councils review power plant siting plans.
Executive Director Koons said State law requires that counties are members of the Council, but municipal membership is optional.
The NCFRPC budget for FY 2015 is down $280,000 from last year's $1,969,300. The budget is funded through local, state, and federal sources.
Payroll
The FY2015 Planning Council payroll is $894,900 before benefits for 14 employees, or an average of $63,921. Fringe benefits are an additional $375,800, which makes the total payroll cost $1,270,700, or $90,714 to the taxpayers for each employee.
The Planning Council approved another 4 year extension to Executive Director Koons' contract which began on August 24, 2006.
The original contract was not included with the agenda material. It is not clear if anyone on the Planning Council knew the substance of Executive Director Koons' contract or how much he earned.
The Council unanimously approved the contract, sight unseen, which now expires in 2018.
Epilogue
The Planning Council meeting began with Executive Director Koons telling the Council, "It's a good time to take a pause and review where we've been this last year. Executive Director Koons then went through a PowerPoint highlighting the year's accomplishments.
After the meeting, your reporter asked Executive Director Koons if he thought he had a successful year.
He answered, "The Council's been extremely successful in providing services to cities and counties across north Florida. We are able to provide services at a reasonable price because we have economies of scale by working with a number of jurisdictions."
Pie charts courtesy of the NCFRPC
){kind=link}
){kind=link}