FY 07/08 as a service organization, our goal is to meet County space requirements while maintaining the operational function of County-owned or leased buildings. To that end, we constantly review requests, procedures and regulations to find the best solutions to those needs. In Fiscal Year 2008 there will be a reduction in budgeted staff from 114 full-time and six part-time positions to our current level of 101 full-time and five part-time positions. The reduction is due to position deletions, realignment, attrition and the addition of contracted custodial services for maintaining many County buildings. These types of decisions are made as we evaluate our ability to maintain County facilities and support staff that perform daily preventative maintenance, remodel, and repair of County buildings. In an effort to support the most cost-effective operation, and to reduce the number of stocked repair items, the Maintenance staff has developed a list of "universal" parts or products which they now use as  replacements in all County buildings. 

This standardized list of items has also been supplied to our Construction staff who now implement use of those parts or products in all new construction projects. Construction staff has incorporated sustainability (green) features in new construction and renovation projects, and proposes to evaluate and implement more sustainable features in future projects to minimize environmental impacts by incorporating the use of resource and energy efficient materials, renewable resources, alternative energy sources, water conservation, waste reduction and pollution prevention. We are assisting the Emergency Services Department with the hardening of Fire Stations to withstand 130 mile per hour winds, and are adding generator back-up power to many buildings throughout the County in an effort to maintain operations during emergency situations. Newly constructed Fire Stations are being built to withstand hurricane force winds from 130 to 150 miles per hour, depending on wind zones. We also support the Parks and Recreation Department in the renovation and design of County parks. Additionally, Construction staff are looking into prebuild planning project delivery systems, like Design Build and Construction Management "CM-at-Risk", which are systems used to transfer the risk from owner to architect/builder during the construction phase of a project.