By Ken Jackson
Staff Writer

Over the course of a pair of meetings this week the Board of Osceola County Commissioners, with the help of county staff, has drafted a list of its priorities to pass on to the Osceola Legislative Effort (OLE).

With the help of the lobbying group, the county seeks funding or policy changes for six top projects.

In addition, the county has directed the lobbying effort to oppose legislation pertaining to shifting state-level prison inmates to county jails and formation of any regional expressway authority without Osceola County representation.

The legislative priorities the commission asked OLE to take to Tallahassee include:

• In the name of economic development, creating a micro-loan program through Enterprise Florida, in order to advance money to small business that are expected to populate the anticipated new international commerce center for the Judge Farms property just east of Kissimmee. County staff reported, however, that Enterprise Florida “is not in the lending business,” and that this could be “an uphill battle.”

• Enact extended-stay legislation into public lodging law. This will bring clarity to hoteliers who cater to extended-stay residents regarding when they can simply have police remove tenants who simply fail to pay their rent (regarded as “transients”) and when they must go through the longer eviction process to those who have established their home address, and therefore residency, at that location (regarded as “non-transients”).

Commissioners noted this subject has wide-reaching effects, including economic and law enforcement ramifications. It also hinders homeless prevention and revitalization efforts along the West U.S. Highway 192 corridor.

• Establish funding for an Osceola County mental health triage unit. A center on Michigan Avenue in Kissimmee has already been budgeted at $100,000, but county staff noted that the project is projected to cost $400,000. The school shooting massacre in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14 helped move this up the priority list.

• Simplifying the permitting codes regarding septic tanks.

• Funding a pedestrian and vehicle overpass linking Osceola Heritage Park and the Judge Farms land earmarked for the business commerce center. The project is slated to cost upward of $10 million, county transportation planner Tiffany Homler said.

“We’re planning a gateway structure and not just a concrete overpass,” she said.

• Garnering funding to continue to expand Valencia College’s Osceola campus. Officials noted that Valencia’s high ratio of students to current instructional building square footage should put it at the top of the list statewide in the complicated process of garnering community college funding.

OLE’s list of local legislators includes state Representatives Neil Combee, Mike LaRosa and Ricardo Rangel and state Senators Darren Soto and Kelli Stargel.

OLE representative Tom Franklin told the commission that the battle to carry out the county’s priorities is more of an uphill battle this year than it has been in years past because of reduced amount of experience working in Tallahassee committees.

“They don’t represent the county as well as Mr. (Mike)Horner did,” he said.

Prior to Wednesday’s session, the board went through the list of regional boards and committees that commissioners sit on, one that Chairman Frank Attkisson called “an interesting list.”

In most cases, commissioners agreed to remain on boards they sit on, such as John Quiñones remaining the commission’s representative to the Kissimmee/Osceola County Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors.

Brandon Arrington’s vacated seat on the Lynx board was discussed. I

In a measure to secure more county representation, the board considered the possibility of Attkisson taking the seat and then securing it’s nomination to the MetroPlan board, with Commissioner Mike Harford then taking the seat.