2.17.26 Pasco Board of County Commissioners Meeting (Morning Session)

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Morning. County Commission meeting February 17, 2026. At this time, please silence all electronic devices. Good morning. Let's pray. Father, we come together today with another full agenda and just so much to talk about, so much to discuss. So, I just ask that you be in the midst of this meeting, midst of conversation. I see on the agenda we're going to be recognizing teacher of the year. I just thank you and praise you for her service not only for her service but service of all of our teachers and administrators and ask that you put your arms of love and protection around each and every one of them and all of our students here so they just great here. I also see we're going to be about the infrastructure. Our county is growing so quickly. We need to be able to keep up. We understand that it takes money to do so. So I ask that you give us wisdom as we make decisions about all that infrastructure and all the growth and help us to come up with true solutions to the challenges that face us United States.

Madam cler

commissioner hereman Now this is now public given an opportunity to comment on any current or future agenda items and other business addressed personally commissioner or team member directed at the provide mutual respect me and address timer will be activated and a green light will be shown on the podium. After two minutes, a yellow light will indicate you have one minute left. Your time is up. You should comat.

Yes, we did. The first one is Alan Rose.

Good morning. Alan Rose 10221 Hilltop Drive. Today I bring before you brought before you water management. My background just so you know 32 years US Coast Guard retired started as a ship's navigator finished up in the port of Tampa started new operation there building the port of Tampa from a7 billion a year operation to over 18 billion a year upon retirement and now what I'm bringing forward is I've always been able to bring some things forward to you but not like I can now that I'm retired 2015 I was my first time bringing forward barrier islands 2016 I renamed the island Stark just just to get a little traction see didn't work and then we had 2017 the Newberry project they did a lot of surveying a lot of gathering of information which was very good has not really been put to use 2018 I brought forward green key proposals in 2019 brought forward recharging cruise lake recharge the aquifer improve water quality 2020 Hudson Beach project because I knew things weren't getting done. I said I can do something on my own here. I went out and moved some rocks around. Knew what needed to be done and what would make a difference between a radial current that had been developed out there from the development of the shoreline and we got it back to a directional current. went from years of restrictions by the health department, couldn't swim, you couldn't do anything on the water to since 2020, it's only an average of once per year you had restrictions by the health department. Things can be done. in a little bit of a break there. 2024 brought into knowledge that riparian flow negatively impacted by the continued reszoning and this because we saw it person I saw it personally and observed what was happening and all of this reszoning that's going on we had brought forward signatures of many of your constituents in the area We didn't we didn't want this res one was downsized and the other one is on. That was one area while we didn't pay attention to the southern area. All this redevelopment on ridge road has caused real negative impacts. The uh all three spillways are barely functional at all. So last year we watched rocky sink spillway go backwards and flooded out our neighborh. And you may not have seen that because the flooding in our neighborhood everybody's unacres. You just see all the all the animals waiting through water and different things. But I took pictures and I sent you all pictures so you can see that's the type of flight. And if we continue on this path without taking care of the waterways, it's going to get really bad. And it's not it's not difficult. It can they can all be addressed. All these waterways issues can be addressed and we just haven't been maintaining. There's three3 billion in funding available for all these projects. I would like to know we can go federal

state right now direct funding. Thank you.

Next up is Bruce. I got something favor. Okay. So, my my subject here is selective enforcement. Okay. Since 2018, I've been complaining about the illegally mined properties.

My name is Bruce Bumstead. My address is 15324 Kerry Lane, Hudson, Florida. And I'm here about selective enforcement. I've been complaining since 2018 about illegally mined properties. The county has came at me with everything and everything they had. So, I've learned all the rules about excavation and mining and what's going on over there is not permitted. It's not permitted by the D. It's not permitted by Swift Mud. Swift Mud's given them permits in 21 to move dirt off the property, but not the yellow illegally mined off the property.

Yeah. Yeah. Everything's got addresses, partial IDs, and everything.

Okay. So, and these are multiple part parcels on the whole property. One of them, the the one subject that I'm talking about is right next to the first item is the Pasco Road property. That property has been mined by this company. Their dirt has been sold. It's been blocked off and now it's advertised as rental space for storage. Okay? And next to that parcels, you have the 8969 Bolton Avenue who's been in violation since 2013 since mining that property and nothing has ever been done. Mining is different than excavation. So now they're at the source of now D has issued them a permit to remove the illegally left material from CLC truck in previous so that they could do a site plan and do a topical survey. They didn't remove all that dirt. They now are now mining the illegal the old landfill from the 80s which is toxic dirt which is bit and sifted and spread out all over this county with no oversight again. No permits, no nothing. They have no rightway use. They have no site plan. They have no nothing. and they are still operating as usual all under the coverage of the county knowing about it since 2013 with a knowledge of over a half a million yards moved off that property of illegal dirt. So that's the extent that we're doing. These next parcels, 8632, that's a parcel right down the street that's been in violation for 5 years for illegally leveling and cleaning the whole property, filling it all in. Their water runs right down into a springfed lake on there on um the next item is the property that's on Bolton Avenue. It's a homeless camp. That homeless camp now is because everybody's been displaced from the end of Bolton Avenue and they've just displaced into a new parcel. So if the county has all these RO spaces all over the county, why don't they let the homeless live on them properties so that all the garbage and everything else ends up on your county property, not on people's properties that have left mountains of garbage at every homeless camplet that's been at. And the county knows where they're all at. They know they're from 52 to Hudson, all in them areas, all in them woods. The next property is New York Avenue. Piles of millings on a C2 on a C2 property. no permits, no nothing, you know, and that's continues on everything. So, the next parcel of um see which one here 19 in New York Avenue used to be a just a vacant lot. It's now been leveled, cleared. Milling's on it getting ready to be storage. Um there's everyone has different lists of stuff on here which highway 19 um they've turned around at 7806 Maryland Avenue they've turned around and made a storage center and turn around and millings and everything on it. No permits. There's all these lists of all these complaints are all valid complaints that need to get handled and they've been overlooked and they're being selectively enforced and it needs to stop. And I

cannot have selective.

I am the most selective person David Allen.

Next up, Bonnie.

Hi, I'm Bonnie 91. 21. We both have the same

David1s. They are damaging my property now. And the problem is I have a guy as expensive for me. I can't keep doing this. and the neighbors two doors down and behind me keep feeding the cats. You know, I counted nine dishes out front and she won't stop. I've tried talking to her. They just won't stop feeding them and it's becom they're multiplying. They had two litters on my front porch just keep Bonnie says it cage enclosure and you know it's been destroyed by cats sitting on it and laying on it that aren't her cats. They're using it for laying alone. I can't afford to keep doing this. I don't know what else to do.

I've had damage. I have a convertible that sits outside on top of that. you know, need it and play with it. You know, they're not considered basically what I think to be wild animals where they were, you know, animals that were nature to to our area, which you know, you can't really bother those, but uh because of all these cats that are just left to be out, you know, again, people feel sorry for them. They feed them in different places and uh all they're doing is multiph whether it's code enforcement or you know animal control that needs to address it. Uh you guys I guess are the ones that are going to have to make decision about who's going to take charge of this and try to put a top on it or try to shut down so that people aren't having damage to their homes.

Excuse me. David Cruz, we need your address for the11.

Thank you. Next up is Whitten.

Hello, commissioners. My name is Brandy Whitten, 13751 10th Street, Date City, Florida. Um, I come to you today as a concerned citizen to talk about these sky lanterns. I woke up early, drove an hour, and taking from homeschooling my children to be here today to let you guys know about what is going on. Last night around 6 p.m. my children saw a parachute falling from the sky and was wondering why it was on fire. Um I ran over as they are pulling it from the tree and this green sky lantern was in the tree. I called non-emergency to be on the lookout and possibly do a patrol because they are in the area falling. Little Everglades Ranch was doing a um lunar um what they called a massive lunar lantern festival this past weekend. It ran on the 14th and it is 5.6 miles from my house. um this location um depending on the wind can carry these lanterns. And on their website it states that um these sky lanterns take place at nightfall and that they are 100% biodegradable and designed for responsible controlled festival use. Lanterns are available online and for purchase at the festival subject to availability that they are also fire resistant, which obviously you can see that it is not fire resistant and that they are biodegradable. Um, then 20 minutes later, we look up and there is another one falling into our oak tree and with this burn band that Pasco County has since January 28th. Um, this one actually had little green or little embers coming off of a disc that was in the center that was falling from the lantern onto our yard. I am thankful that nothing caught fire, but that concern is such an ember could cause a massive fire in, you know, the rubble from the hurricanes and people having debris on their yards and even woodframe houses. My house was built in 1930 is a woodframe house and I know how fast that can go up. Um that is my concern and also the fact that in their website it states that it is approved by fire fire fire marshals and that safety always comes first that it is 100% dependent on weather conditions. I screenshot this and put it directly from their website from their event page. Um they say that um that it was approved and that is my concern on how the fire marshall can approve an event that these fire or these lanterns which are also known as fire balloons would be approved during this time. Um so that is my concern and I come to you guys giving awareness and also just concerned for our area allowing these kind of events. if it's just financial and if it's financial that we're allowing these events that we're outweighing the actual cause. So, thank you.

Thank you for making

Yes. Thank you. Joanna Cheshire, interim assistant county administrator for public safety. Um we are aware of you know coming up to this weekend there was a lot of communication uh with the leadership team and myself um about how to proceed. We are under a burn ban. We take safety very seriously. We've had many brush fires since the burn ban. Um we're seeing that in Pasco as well as our neighboring counties. Um so leading up to this weekend, uh we decided to have them not light anything on Sunday. Um because we saw what happened on Saturday. Luckily, there was no issues to report on Saturday. But there are team members here and add some color to the last person on the list. Good morning, Dan Callahan, 7108 terrace in Port Richie. I want to thank your staff and Commissioner Starky for keeping my friends and I uh informed about the tree ordinance. Uh I just want to make a few comments today. I'm happy to see that you've uh put it forward until late March. perhaps to give you an opportunity to more carefully examine, you know, what you're proposing. Uh on the way here, I was at the corner of Play Road and Little Road, uh as I often have been in the last few months, and uh when you look across the road at that development, uh what you see is uh clear cutting and it looks more like Texas than Florida. I would suggest to you that you look more carefully perhaps at the idea that clear cutting can be bought off by a developer. Um I'm reminded of several years ago when Sims Park uh was being renovated. They were taking down all the trees. I came out of the historical society and saw them putting big X's on the hickory trees that had been around that property for a very long time. Uh, I asked the man what he was up to and he said, "Well, you know, we're going to cut these down." So, we made a fuss about it and got the developer to sit down with us and he said to me, "Mr. Callahan, when we get through, there's going to be more trees in Sims Park than there are now." And my response was, "Not in my lifetime." So, please consider uh what you're doing when it comes to removing these trees. When they're gone, they're gone forever and it's going to take a long time to replace them. Thank you so much.

Pastor Jen Carowak Lane, Spring Hill, Florida. Um Pasco part of Spring Hill. Um I just wanted to come and say thank you to and to the county for their support during the very long stretch of cold weather. And I wanted to just let everyone know and and the county administrator and other staff that are here through the support of not just the county but other um county partners within the county. um we ourselves were able to assist over 40 people getting into at a minimum temporary shelter and more permanent shelter. So essentially I just wanted you know we should all experience the fruit of the labor and um and without the county's support we would not necessarily have been able to do as much as we did. So today I'm here to just say thank you. Great partnership between our local community. Thank anyone else like the board com Lakes. So, um, we live in Don and we moved up there about March of last year and we stood on the property before the house was finished and we looked across the way and asked the salesman, "Hey, are they going to build over there in the wilderness area?" No, it's steam wilderness. It's the county. And so about 6 to 12 months after we moved in, we get a notification they're going to put a four lane road down right the big round which we live near and uh had my wife very upset and beautiful home and there's many beautiful homes up there. No one told us about a road going in which then we find out after we get this notification from that actually had to agree to a road going through before they even started the neighborhood, which we weren't aware of. And I don't know how many people were aware of at the time. I mean, building a road up there, if you really have ever driven in Bud Beexley, it it seems a little ridiculous because it goes right in front of a a grade school right behind it actually. Um it's a beautiful neighborhood. There's people ride bikes, they run, they jog, roller blade. Um, tons of wildlife. I'm surprised more people haven't been up in arms about the whole wildlife thing. Uh, there's deer crossing the road. So, they've been hit even now the way it is. Alligators crossing the road, sand hill cranes, you can imagine, right? So, I took a trip just driving on the balls. I was down in Clear Water. Had to go to St. Pete and I drove on that parkway. It was a beautiful ride. anybody ridden on that road 19 just straight through all the way no stops and then I happened to have to drive from Clear Water to Target and that was quite the challenge if you've ever been on that road because you have to stop every two miles three miles and it's terrible and I think what they're looking for solution for for 54 going from well

probably Newport Richie all the way 75 but for our our area from the Sun Coast Parkway all the way across they're looking for a solution to relieve that traffic. So they think well we'll bring them through Beex. bring that traffic through, which if they could simply figure out a way to fund a nice, beautiful parkway from the Sun Coast Parkway on 54 straight through to where 56 breaks off of 54 right past the outlet malls. That would a be a tough build, but it can be done because it was done in Clear Water to All right, one last call for public comment. Good morning. David Engel, planning and economic development director. It's my pleasure today to present a addendum item AR 1117. This is a um a economic incentive request made by Moffett Cancer and Research Center for the Spiro's campus. The um the Moffett organization is requesting a $21 million penny for Pasco commitment from the county to help fund a $228 million capital project. The campus is located at the uh souththeasterly corner of the Sun Coast and Ridge Road extension. And uh the pro the project is uh seeking $21 million. This uh $21 million will be utilized as a local match support to a US EDA community development block grant DR grant that will uh fund uh assist in funding a uh a five project scope consisting of the $228 million I just mentioned. The capital stack on the project is as follows. Uh there'll be a um there'll be a $42 million um uh funding from Moffett. The county will fund $21 million as proposed and the US EDA will fund $49.8 million which is the component of this application. Uh the project consists of R&D for radio immunology. Uh Secondly, it also provides a manufacturing facility and treatment facility. Included will be a incubator um uh that will be privately operated and shall be taxable. And there will be also a uh a component for um incubator support through USF and Pasco Hernando State College. Uh currently the the board has uh funed 5.7 million towards the SPOS project and that uh that was done in an economic development agreement uh that was uh executed in 2021 and the potential path forward here is uh I'm just going to lay out for the board is to approve and execute the draft supporting resolution letter of support which I provided the board in draft form and we have to the agenda coordinator and also concurrent with the submission of an EDA application by Met 49.8 in grant support. Uh we're indicating here that we're asking the board to direct county administrator and county attorney to draft EDA memorializing the county contribution defining the project scope and outlining project deliverables. So uh in summary, this is a $228 million project. the the Moffett organization is asking for a $21 million local match supporting um grant

and Moffet will put up $42 million as part of the project and uh might I add this will be a defining project for the Moffett organization. Uh we're going to be doing research and treatment that is of global importance for cancer prevention and treatment here. First of all, thank you, David. Thank you to the county staff who worked with us uh on a relatively rapid timeline to get this here. Uh I also wanted to introduce some members of the Moffett team who are here, obviously, most notably our founder, Mr. Lee Moffett, um who founded Moffett 40 years ago this year and was an enthusiastic supporter of expanding to Pasco County. your name and title.

Oh, sorry. Yeah, thank you.

Josh Carpenter and president of uh Spiros, uh which is obviously affiliated with Mic Cancer Center. Um and been there about nine a little over nine months now. Um also with us today is our general counsel, Chip Fletcher. Uh and then uh this is as as as mentioned a part of a grant where we have multiple partners. So it's not just Mafet and Spiros. Uh one of our partners is the University of South Florida specifically their their pharmacy program and the pharmacy program. Professor Nick Carris is here with us today uh to talk a little about their their plan to help build the workforce of the future and then uh Dr. Pashant Pilly with Pasco Fernando State College is also here as well. So um two key elements of our workforce partnership. Uh just want to talk a little bit about what radio pharmaceuticals are and what the strategic opportunity is for us and how we think Pasco County can can really lead the way. Um so radioharmaceuticals is about a7 billion dollar industry today. It's uh one of the leading ways to treat cancer but uh specifically prostate cancer. Uh there's drug called flu victto. Um and the pivotal trial for that drug as well as the other drug that was approved by the FDA called budtherra. Both of those drugs were were um approved through trials in part performed at mopet. um it is going to be a$ 30 billion industry and so our goal is to make sure that we position Spiros and Pasco to capture that economic impact and grow those jobs and we know that that's a combination of physical infrastructure um uh again without the county support we wouldn't be here today but um it's also of course it's also going to be built on the talent that both the talent we have and the talent we'll have in the future. Um, one really key component of this is supply chain. And so, um, it's important to know that this is supply chain not just for, um, radio pharmaceuticals and treating patients, but also for national defense. Uh, so the the, uh, 2022 Russia invasion of Ukraine actually disrupted 19 of our 31 critical radioisotope supplies, and there's really not one serving the southeastern portion of the United States. um this building, what we're proposing as a portion of what we're we're doing as a one of the five projects in this grant that, as David mentioned, will have about a $228 million direct economic impact, um with a a much larger indirect economic impact, um will meet that need in a meaningful way, but will also position us as a as a leader in uh in this important industry. Um, you know, the county support thus far has been incredibly um, essential, and I just want to thank each and every one of you, particularly those of you um, who've made time in recent days, even while traveling, to to speak with me about this project, and I'm happy to answer questions. members. Are you online?

Do you have any comments? Would you like

just heading So here is a critical part of future I want to make sure we help them make this step whatever I think it's important that we do support them next And we did just for the record. So out of town, out of state rules.

Hey, good morning. Um, so, uh, Josh, you and I talked about this and as you know, this board is very excited, but I did have some questions because I'm just seeing these papers and um, so as I mentioned to you on the phone, one of the concerns for me was that my understanding when you were coming was that So therefore, we're not. So you sent me a paper that said if leases for I just I just feel we have to protect here soon. So um this is all very important. I just want someone my staff to speak.

Sure. I'm happy to just say quickly uh you know as a business person um I would make sure that I have a return on my investment and I think this will have a direct and indirect return on your investment in a meaningful way. Uh what I think is important to note is that you know the paper that I sent around to you yesterday we've also circulated with staff is that our understanding both inside with our internal council and outside council is that property taxes are assessed not on the ownership but on the use of the property that is is being deployed being assessed. So in this case, for example, we we estimate that about 70% of the SPO's campus will ultimately be developed by private sector individuals, either developers or companies themselves. And in fact, you know, I was on a on the phone with a company on the way here that's a a private entity that anticipates paying paying taxes to Pasco County for work they will perform as bureaus. Um, so the question I think on property tax assessments is independent of the ownership, but is totally predicated on the use of the property and in this case again our goal is to get 70% of that property tax base into private sector hands but happy to also

thank you uh Chip Fletcher general counsel for MA Cancer Center and um happy to [clears throat] speak to this Um uh by way of experience when we had many years ago a for-profit subsidiary um created called M2Gen which was a a joint venture with Merc and some other investors. They were on a piece of property that we owned as a a nonprofit cancer center as part of an economic development project in in Hillsboro County and the part of the parcel that they used we pay property tax on. So that's our experience is that when you have the um [clears throat] commercially facing or commercial operator on property irregardless of who owns it with the exception of the county is my understanding. If the county or the state owns land, then it's exempt. But if it's a nonprofit, they go and look at the use. And so if we're leasing to a commercial operator, they'll have to pay tax. If we're sharing space, various various uh permutations like that. But that's our experience is that when we do that, we'll have to pay attention to what the use is, what the activity is, and then apply to your tax um your property appraisers's office and go through a process to have that determination done and then pay tax on the portion of it that's not consistent with our charitable operations like a like a nonprofit health center or something of that nature. And that is consistent. The other item that I spoke to about my hope and I spoke to David about this too is contest. For me, it is that we're asking for these excited about these high jobs. I like to see those people here. I I had this experience when I first started working with hospitalite office and I was in charge of fundraising and there weren't many businesses back then. that were here. So I started knocking on whatever and everyone said to me, "Oh, we love children's hospital, you know, because we live down there." So I had a really hard time getting high. So that's I don't know how you part of the matrix is that the high wage earners actually manufacturing there sitting program that the county supports and we would like to have that uh into this as well um as part of the agreement. And those are my those are my three issues and I'm much more comfortable with it now.

Well, I just program I just love the idea how many thousand lives. I feel very comfortable. like this. You got to be very careful. Well, I'll hopefully that bill has died that says a county cannot would be able to help you. So, I don't know where that is, but when we get our update, we'll we'll find out about that. I want to tell you a story that um two months ago I every month I play this game called and um one of my girlfriends in my group said that both she and her husband and they were so excited that they could just drive minutes instead of taking and to this week you open. So

yes sir I want to thank I just want to make sure to reimburse whatever.

Thank you. Yes. And I I agree with Commission's comments. We need to make sure that we're following these leases. come up with the appropriate finan agreements.

And I want to make sure and we'll do a roll

district. Hi,

District Commissioner.

Hi.

District three, commissioner.

Hi.

District four, commissioner. District five. Thank you everybody. Thank you,

Mr. Chairman.

Yes, sir.

I just want to let you know conference.

Very good. Thank you.

We'll see you in Washington. Good to see you. Thank you for coming. Now it's time for resolutions.

Month step forward. Resolution number 26-128 a resolution by the board of county commissioners of Pasco County Florida6 as national procurement month in Pasco County. Whereas the public procurement professional role in the efficiency and effectivenure adds value to the organization by performing functions such as implementing and administering contracts, developing procurement strategies and cultivating working relationships with suppliers and other departments within Pasco County. And whereas public commissioners in other tremendous economic conditions in the United States of purchasing department of the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners is committed to providing high caliber strategic, logistical and operational support for all departments within Pasco County. Whereas in 2025, the purchasing department at the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners received the achievement of excellence in procurement award from the National Institute and achieve a new milestone by achieving 50% of all eligible professional staff members holding a national certifices procurement values and guiding principles of accountability, ethics, impartiality, professionalism, service and transparency established by the institute for public procurement as fundamental tenants of the public. Whereas the institute for public procurement has proclaimed the month of March as national procurement month to further expand the awareness of the procurement professionals role to government officials, the public, businesses and corporate leaders. Therefore, be it resolved by the board of county commissioners of Pasco County, Florida that declares the month of March, 2026 as National Procurement Month in Pasco County, 2026. All

thank you for all the good work. Yeah, congratulations. It's always a meeting that are coming. So, we're always improving our system for

[laughter]

Well, thank you guys. Yes, you know, but there's proic [laughter] especially with the updates. You all have a very tedious job and details for both sides and on your side. Thank you for coming here. Mr. county administrator. [laughter]

Yeah. So, I I just echo his comments. Um I work day in and day out for this team and I don't think find a more professional group around even when things are not easy. We always make the right decision department but also our vendor on it. And I see that partiality go down. [laughter] RS2 here. Resolution number commissioners of Pasco County, Florida declined March 2026 as Florida Bicycle Month in Pasco County where Bicycle Month was established in 1956 by the League of American Bicyclist. hoped to showcase the benefits of cycling to promote individual and community wellbeing. Whereas in 2024, Florida was named the eighth most friendly state in America by the League of American Bicyclists and ranked in the highest percentile infrastructure commitment to building a safe promoting bicycle safety including the use of helmets, proper signaling to essential to reducing injuries and fatalities among cyclists. Whereas the recycle month will raise awareness of promote physical activity and healthy lifestyles by elevating bicycling as a widely accepted choice of transport. Whereas bicycle month of all ages to enjoy throughout the month at various parks and locations throughout County whereas county restorable environmentally conscious form of transportation and an excellent form of physical activity and recreation. Whereas county collaborates with local law enforcement groups to promote bicycle safety and awareness throughout the community whereas bicycling benefits all citizens of Pasco County by improving the traffic congestion and noise and decreasing the use of energy sources. Whereas the Florida Department of Transportation and our local agencies have adoped and policies to develop a multiodule transportation system to support pedestrians and bicyclists by prioritizing safety and mobility. Whereas county board of county commissioners encourages all Pasco County residents to ride their bicycles this month while practicing safe resary6ot.

We have a motion in the second. All in favor, [laughter]

y'all stepped in.

Yeah, I I had to look it up to make sure that we could still get this So, um, you know, one of my favorite so many reason I think we're honoring yourself.

[laughter]

No, unfortunately I didn't ride here, but uh um Epcot always wants you to wear bright colored clothing when you're riding.

So remember to wear your helmet and if you're riding at night, I certainly appreciate.

So now he's in favor of the trail.

Seems like everybody likes and things like that makes it very bic.

So, my name is Brian Michaels. committee. We are still looking for some members to join. So if you have anybody or anybody that's listening wants to be part of the team to see the future pedestrian safety fill Good morning. Thank you. And I want to say thank you to our valued BAC members, bicycle pedestrian advisory committee with the MO. We're very honored to have them and their hard workers uh with the MO. So I just wanted to broach that. So on behalf of the bicycle pedestrian committee, thank you for this bike resolution and for our continued support here in Pasco County moving us forward. Uh we're especially excited about the kickoff of the active transportation plan which we brought up last week. board meeting. Uh this important effort will help identify the infrastructure connections and safety improvements needed to make bike uh biking and pedestrian more accessible and safer for residents of all ages and abilities. Uh this resolution and this plan together uh show Pasco County's commitment to a healthier uh people, safer streets, and stronger communities. And once again, thank you for this honor and happy bike month

and board members members. Thank you for your service. We'll come down and take a picture with

you. Next order of business is consent. I see we have one pulled item. Do we have any other items? We have a motion. All

favor.

Yeah. Can you put some The first thing that caught my eye was now.

Sure. Sanderson, co- compliance director. And so, Commissioner Starky, you're correct. Um, following a competitive process, we selected a vendor uh very few respondents to that procurement a year or more ago. Um, we did end that agreement with them recently for non-performance. Uh, we also had a second contractor that pulled out from performance as well. We've gone back out um and have uh received competitive bids from, I believe it was three companies. The that we have since selected is a Pasco based company.

Size of the lot's And in some cases they do remove trash as well. And so in some limited cases you may see dumping fees associated with there's trash on the site. I mean it's a necessary thing but one of these right there

all right the mowing where's That's clearing.

Correct.

I'll point out this is also these are class one violations which is a $150 citation and that's under the uniform fine and fee schedule set by the city judicial court. That is not represented in the resolution. What is that number? So this is what I was $121.

I don't know that we are. I'd have to I'm not looking at the Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were talking about

this. Oh, that's just part of the calculations. Um,

forgive me. I can't see. What is

that is the total amount including the administrative cost that particular one. So there is a spreadsheet that gives you right this that breaks down those that's also in your attachments. It identifies the clearing cost, the penalty, the administrative costs, recording costs and then the total which all of those are within each lean for the So when we do a violation that money goes to the judicial gossitation And that is not included in these numbers that you're saying. This is only in the first but I wanted to understand how expensive it is for us. Amazing.

Exactly.

Thank you. Now to our regular Hello, Amy Ferrell, budget director with Pasco County's Office of Management and Budget. Sorry if I'm a little raspy. I'm coming off of a twomonth cold. It's shenanigans. I don't like it. All right, so what are we going to talk about today? We're going to go over our budget cycle, show you where we've been, where we're at, and the body of work still left to adopt a budget. This September, we're going to look at different predictors of our taxable, assessed value, economic indicators. Um, we're going to look at our major revenue sources that fund both operating and capital. And then we're going to look at those known expenses and impacts of that are going to be impacting our FY27 budget bills. Now, the story that we're going to be seeing today with our numbers really is showing us how our localized Pascal economy is very reminiscent of the precoid economy in most instances except for just the cost of getting stuff done. All right, so budget cycle overview. In January, we had a workshop with you all where we talked um of our fiveyear strategic plan moving into the second year of that. what should we be focusing on as we build our budget? We had an internal kickoff with our county department and said go forth and start building your budget packets um now here we're doing our revenue projection here in February and then we're going to be briefing you all late February early March looking at the general fund and a deep dive into our MSG. Then from March to May there's a big body of work that where we really um fine-tune those budget submission requests. Department directors first come through me. I hack them down. I do good work. So, Mike comes in and then we can start talking about, you know, needs and plans and things like that. Um, good cop, bad cop. That's how we do this. And then in June, we're going to Oh, in April, we're going to come with our constitutional officers and the chief judge and we're going to get some good dialogue with them on what their upcoming budget needs are and their long-term plans. And then in June, we're going to come back and workshop with you all. At that point, we'll have preliminary taxable assessed value numbers. We'll have um pretty close to our proposed budget. And we're going to come back to you and say, "We've been listening, but did we get it right? Is there still more work we need to do before we come back in July and set that trim?" And then from July to September, we'll be doing more briefings and fine-tuning those things so we can come back and adopt the budget with the first and final public hearing in September. But don't, it's a lot of work, but don't be tired yet. We still got a lot to do. All right. So, now we're looking at some of those what we call predictors of our taxable assessed value. So, here we're looking at our new home permits and those are leveling off. Um, as you can see, we're So, you want to look at that purple line and we're right back to

where we were 2022, right? So, we had a big spike, but now we've kind of leveled off. So, growth is still happening. It's just not that huge skyrocket. And so, you might say, "Okay, Amy, why are we looking at this?" Well, new construction is half of our taxable assessed value. And um these permits are somewhere between a two to threeyear leading indicator, meaning permits that we're seeing today will impact our taxable assess value growth from new construction two to three years down the road. So, we like to pay attention to this. So, if we're building an FY27 budget, those FY25 permits are pretty indicative of what we think that new construction growth rate might be. And then if we look at our total new construction values, so you'll see they've been climbing climbing. We don't expect them to continue to climb. And when we look at that breakout of residential, which is this previous slide, right? Our new home permit was res. And then our commercial residential makes up about 85% of our new construction with commercial being roughly 15%. Now over the years we've seen pretty steady somewhere in the four to 6% range when we're looking at our new construction taxable assessed value growth. But now when we look at our total taxable assessed value, this also incorporates our revaluations of existing property. Now over the years it's been these valuation piece. Those have been coming in in double digits and that's what's really been bumping up our total taxable assessed value. And now let me jump forward one more slide and you can see how that's starting to come down. That's because our new construction is still holding pretty steady in that 4 to 6% range, but those revaluations are coming down. Okay, Amy. So what does all of that mean? That is a great question. Well, that means we are scenario planning anywhere. four, six, or eight% total growth and taxable assessed value for FY27. And we like to do a scenario plan because let's be real, I don't have a magic eightball and I can't tell you exactly what's coming. But we like to have some different scenarios so that way as we're planning and things start to shake out, it's a little bit easier to pivot and maneuver once July 1 happens and we do have those preliminary taxable assess values. And so here you can see what that looks like for the general fund if it's at four, six or eight. So six million additional dollars coming to the board after the sheriff's 40% of new revenue after the um payments to the CRAAS and to our tax increment finance units. And then you can see at 6% that would be roughly 11 million all the way to 16 million if it does look like that 8%. Now again just to remind you the to 6% range is that new construction and we are seeing a cooling off in the market where those revaluations are concerned which is why we're modeling that 4% bottom number. All right. So that was our taxable

assess value predictors and now we're going to look at our economic indicators. And so the economic indicators that we're looking at kind of help us predict what we think our major revenues might be. Half cent sales tax, those kinds of things. And as we go through these slides, you're going to see that we are pretty in line with precoid trends. So we hit um some anomalies during CO, but we are back to how things looked precoid. So there might be some literature or things going out that are like might sound worrisome but when you look big picture and you go back precoid we've actually just I'll call it renormalized if that makes sense. And so if you look overall our US economy at the macro level it continues to be strong. We're looking at our real GDP percent change from the previous quarter but now let's do a dive into just the last quarter. And so you'll see here from this slide that consumer spending is really crops up that GDP number and that's still pretty strong. So we are still seeing some consumer spending happening. Now let's take that a little step further and talk about well what type of spending are we seeing? Now when we say that we think the economy is still pretty strong here, still pretty strong here and still pretty strong here because when you look at the categories of where we're spending that's what we call discretionary spending. So we're looking at retailers. Think your Amazon, your online shopping, um sporting goods, restaurants, clothing stores. All of that spending signals um signals a strong consumer behavior. Okay. So, what does that mean? Well, that means that we are seeing our Florida sales tax still be pretty strong. Now when I talk about that anomalous period so think that 2020 to your 2022 where we've got those that big spike but now if you go back to 2013 to 2017 2018 and you see how that trend line is slowly steadily marching up that's the same trend line that we're starting to see now um when you look at 23 24 and 25. So that's what we say when our economy is starting to look like that of pre-COVID. This is what we mean. If you just kind of took those center ones out, you've got that same kind of modulated growth. All right. So now the other side of the economy, we look at what is what is that inflationary look like? And then we also look like what is that job growth look like? And now again, this is one of those where if you just take the anomalous precoid data out of there, we're back to precoid rule. Um so roughly $7 million of um job openings is actually what the economists say makes a strong economy. During the co time we were looking at like $12 million of or 12 million open jobs. Um but there was a lot of money getting pumped into the economy. A lot of jobs were being created. But now we're back to that same kind of strong normal about 7 million um job openings. All right. So, inflation is still

cooling, but we've been hovering right around that 3% range for the past year. So, we're looking at about 2.7% inflation. It's not at the 2% target, but we are expecting it to kind of stay flat. It's been right around that 2.7 for about a year now. So, we're still forecasting that same inflation rate. All right. So, now when we're looking at that unemployment, we're looking at this more localized level. That left piece shows you where Pasco is. So the lighter blue was this time last year. The darker blue is this year. So while our unemployment rate is up from last year, we're still in what the feds call a full employment rate, which pretty much means we've got a strong balanced economy between unemployment and inflation. And then that second slide is showing you um employment costs. So the cost of having people and employing people and target there is to be right around 4% and we are just a little bit below that 4%. So we're we're looking good there too. All right. So all of this all of these things come into factor when we start to look at how do we think our major revenues are going to perform. So the first one up is our halfent sales tax. And there's three key things that impact this revenue. So it's directly tied to inflation, it's tied to consumer spending and it's tied to our population size. And so, um, our, as you can see with our permits, our population size is kind of leveling off. We've got small steady growth, but nothing hugely major. Um, consumer spending, people are still spending discretionary funds. Um, so we're still holding pretty firm there. And then inflation has has kind of stabilized, right? So, we're expecting, as you can see, kind of a stabilized half cent sales tax with just a little bit of an increase. our county revenue share. So this is our net cigarette tax collections and our net sales and use tax collections. And so this revenue source comes to us monthly and we get a flat amount every month until we reach June and July. And then the state does what we call a true up based off of total collections. and then we get um an allocation that kind of we'll call it back fills the previous month. Now there's been an interesting phenomenon. So normally it's that same amount every year but when we looked at our November to December distribution there was a slight decline. So, we have been mimicking the state's conservative posture in our revenue projection here, but still anticipating a slight increase. All right. And then communication service tax. So, this is on all of our voice, data, audio, video, think, phone calls, landlines, cell phones, video streaming, satellite, fax, all of that fun stuff. And we generally use this for emergency services. So this is again we're showing just a steady incline nothing major. All right. Any questions on our very modulated slightly increasing nothing crazy to see revenue projections.

All right. That means Amy's doing a good job explaining. All right. So budgetary pressures. We talked about these in January. So really has changed here. There's the property tax reform which we're still monitoring and we do have a couple slides um geared towards that. Um we are looking at addressing what we call a structural imbalance in the general fund which basically means the recurring revenue that comes in is a little bit less than the recurring expenses going out. And so we like those numbers to be the same. But we've been eating into our fund balance a little bit to keep our operations going. But we have been making steady work chipping away at getting back to being balanced. And so we will continue to do that good work behind the scenes to keep us in what we like to call a good fiscal solveny standpoint. Um, public safety staffing and expenses. Um, we've got sheriff expense pressures. We've got we're expanding a jail. Um, you know, still working through operationalizing that wages and benefits. When we look at our total budget, the majority of what we spend our money on is related to people. People salaries and benefits. So that's always going to create some kind of pressure on any budget that we're building. Um, general inflation and growth demands on our operating and capital budget. Um, I don't I don't know if there's going to be a point where that bit ever comes off this slide. Um, solid waste rate study. So building the FY27 budget, we will be um, done with the 77 solid waste rate. So they are working right now on that rate study. So that will be coming soon. Adjacent um the same of our public facilities. So we need to maintain our public facilities. If we don't the cost to repair them will only become um higher really is kind of how that works, right? Wesley Chapel Library. So we will have the full operational and personnel burden on the budget. We've done a great job being very creative as we've been going through the different renovations to utilize existing staff. Um liaries have been shut down, but they are all going to be fully online and operational come fiscal year 27. And then um our Medicaid rates, we get those in June. Typically those go up um we'll have those in June, but you know, it's here because we keep an eye on that and typically it goes up, not down. All right. So, property tax reform. So, our office is paying very, very, very close attention to what's happening. Um it's too soon in the legislative process to really know how things are going to shake out, but we do continue to monitor. Um and to my knowledge, nothing has fully come off the table, which means everything's still technically in play, which means we just have to keep watching. But it's too soon to really start building any kind of concrete firm plans around what might happen. We continue to scenario plan as amendments come out. We're keeping keeping our pulse our thumb on

the pulse of that making sure that we're aware so when we know what's going to happen we can pivot but it is important for us to talk about when we're looking at Yes. Yenate.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, so think of it stuff inside a building that businesses have that they get taxed on. What does this mean?

So, so the Senate's proposing that that we don't tax those things.

The Senate's proposing that we wouldn't tax those things. Now, really, I think the big takeaway from this slide is that the variety of reform being proposed varies greatly. Um, anywhere from tangible personal property for businesses up to if you're improving your home to be more resilient against wind damage. The assessed value increment that your home is now worth more. You wouldn't be taxed on to a wholesale reduction of homesteaded property tax. The breath and depth and width and variety of reform is vast, right? And so it's really hard to pin down what the implications might end up being. Give me one second. But my team will look after 20 years of ownership and residency. It provides an additional homestead tax exemption equal to % of the assessed value of property other than the school district levies for persons who have owned and resided on the property as their permanent residence for 30 years or more. Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps.

All right. Oh, you're welcome. So, when we're talking about this property tax reform, it's important for us to understand. So, this is just looking at the general fund, but the municipal service taxing units are also funded through property taxes. But here, we're just looking at the general fund. And it's important to recognize that there are mandated services, things the state says local government will provide. And then depending on some of these um property tax reform bills, there are also some protected services. And so when we look at our general fund and we look at what of those services are either mandated or protected, that makes up 86% of our general fund budget less reserves. So we're not including reserves. Um so that means 14% of our budget is not mandated, not protected. And when you look at the impact of some of those large proposals, we're looking at a revenue loss of more than 88.4 million 14% of our nonmandated nonprotected services. So depending on how this shakes out, we're going to have to have some conversations around levels of service and what does that look like? And so, okay, so let's take that 14% pie slice and let's break that down a little bit further into, well, what are those services? So, parks, libraries, planning and economic growth, senior services, community services, um our debt payments, um internal support services, human resources, uh our payments to the CRAAS would be impacted. Um and then, um some of our other constitutional and officers that aren't in that protected class.

Yes. Put us in a corner. Every other questions we move on. All right. So, I'm going to shift our focus just a little bit and start to look at Okay. So, for every dollar of property taxes that a resident in Pasco pays. Where does that money go? So on the left you'll see that dollar distribution. So 38 cents goes to schools, one cent goes to mosquito control, one cent goes to swift mud, 60 cents goes to the county and that's under this board's discretion. So now if you look at the second half of the slide over to the right, what are the different levies that make up that 60 cents? So we have our general operating which is our largest that's 44 cents of that 60 cents. There's the fire MST which is 13 cents. The road rehabilitation services MSTU is 2 cents and then our general obligation bonds make up one penny. All right. So now let's see how that 44 cents of general operating gets distri distributed. And so when you look 63% makes up public safety. So that's 45% is the sheriff, 13% is corrections, and then 5% is rescue. Um three three cents goes to our tiffs and our CRAAS. Um four cents goes to our other constitutional officers. So really this just shows you how that 44 cents is broken down into type of service. All right. So the other um so we've looked at the taxable assess value growth predictors and what we think that might shake out to be. Then the other part of the equation when we talk about property tax revenue are the mill rates. So the law enforcement MSTU. So this is new. That ordinance was established and adopted in November. And we'll be talking this budget cycle about um mill rates. I know the county administrator's having conversations with the cities in terms of participation and all of that's still kind of a work in progress. So really this is um just it's coming. We'll be talking about it um a placeholder if you will. So then when we go to the parks capital maintenance MSTU so um no levies or no millages have been levied against this property tax. Um, but last year we did give $3 million of capital maintenance money to parks. Um, and then I was chatting with my friend Keith and he said the two major projects that they're looking to accomplish in FY26 are the dugouts at San Pasco Park and a floating dock replacement at the Wakuchi River Park floating. And so they're through design and the team's currently negotiating construction on both of those projects. So, um, they're putting that money to work quickly. when we look at the road rehabilitation MSU FY27 will be the third year that we've got um a millage for this service and um the new growth money we haven't touched that millage rate so the new growth related to the taxable assessed value has just been funneled back into the program to continue to get work done and then the fire and rescue MSTU so back in November the same time we established the law enforcement MSTU we updated that ordinance to be able to

incorporate the rescue component of fire and rescue. And so this year as we go through this budget cycle, we'll be working on what does that appropriate mill rate need to be to absorb those expenses and then the commiserate reduction to the general fund. So again, we're still working through the the math on how that will work, but you know, more information coming. And then the last bit is the general fund. And we would be remiss if we didn't show how for the last four years this board has done some hard work and has made some tough decisions to give money back to the taxpayers in the result of um millage reductions consistently.

Yes ma'am.

Correct. from 7.6 just a reminder that when we did this I When they rolled it back, it back. Hopefully, we have a little more I'm very happy about this.

I'm not afraid of

Thank you for your confidence.

Yes.

[laughter]

I just rather be any other discussion. All right. So, now we're going to pivot out of the general fund and we're going to start to look at some of our other major revenues and what those projections look like. So, here's our ambulance fees. And so um while the number of trips are remaining relatively flat um the net payments per trips have increased 7% in FY24 and 10% in FY25 which is a testament to the good work happening in our ambulance billing team. Right. So now let's look at our local option fuel taxes. So the blue bar is our first local option and this funds our operating expenses for our public works team and the Orange bar funds our capital is one of our funding sources for our capital road construction program. And so while these revenues are continuing to slowly climb, the expenses are outpacing the revenues. And now while most of what we've seen is indicative of precoid trends, our expenses, especially when it relates to capital projects, um the cost of materials and supplies skyrocketed as a result of those cost have not come down. That has become our steady norm. Um so while we are seeing some increase in our revenues, it is not enough to cover the cost of construction. And so we have things like mobility fees penny for Pasco and the multimodal tax increment multimodal transportation tax increment finance out of the general fund that is subsidizing and helping to fund things like our big road capital program. And then when we look at our penny for Pasco, um so this one is also continuing to have some moderated growth and this is very indicative of our steady local economy because what gets paid here comes back here. Um and so this tends to slightly outperform the other revenues. All right. And so we confirmed our budget cycle touch points and that we're going to hang out and talk about budget and make some tough decisions. We've explored our major revenue projections within the general fund. We talked about overarching um budget pressures. And then we explored some of our major revenue projections that are not in the general fund. And our next step again is going to be one-on-one briefings with each of you where we look at the general fund and our different MST and we do that long term long-term horizon look. Any questions for you? It's my team. They're pretty awesome. simplifying Walmart. So, thank you guys for taking time to try to understand how the average thinks that isn't in this every single day and That's just important. Seems strange. Joanna, inter it's an interesting situation for that. A permit was issued for it. Um those lanterns fall under the state statute of fireworks. So it's a fireworks permit. Um we are under a burn ban. Um but as you know you may you may know we're usually under a burn ban during the fourth of July holiday. So it's kind of

just a weird situation with the fireworks in that way. But a permit was issued for this weekend the event as a firework permit per usual. We did consider the burn ban that we're under. And so we had a lot of resources out there to mitate any risk that was paid for by the event. So they they took on that responsibility. Uh Saturday, you're right, there were no issues. Um Sunday winds picked up and fire marshal, the chief and myself spoke about it and decided to pull that permit for for Sunday. So they were not able to light anything on Sunday. They were very understanding. I know that there's another aspect to this though is that the lanterns and obviously we saw one today during public comment um you know how how those may fall and people's properties and kind of the trash that creates And I want to give the board confidence that we all spoke about this last week. This was something that you going into the weekend knowing that this was going on many, you know, we considered the risk of that and consequence of forward very customers that travel. What's the options around the environmental impacts? on their side of environmental impacts that are associated with You can also ask that Excellent. I had no idea. Okay. So, I didn't come back to the board meeting because I went and super down the hill where the bike and it is so wonderful. But I do think we're talking about little kids that we got to find a way that we can make it. And looking up here on the right, that's where So, lots of little down beautiful so I joined everyone up in days that was a great event that's ever your husband. All right. So, as a past woman of distinction honore, we were notified of a couple VIP cookie cookie awards and my staff handed them out to Girl Scouts. So, congratulations They received a tried to be a boy scout, but I was a brownie and a girl. All right. So, I want to thank the men and women of Pasco County Sheriff's Office for their dedication and hard work to keep our county safe. They performed another drug Last week, they took 255.8

of fentanyl off the street and that's enough for 127,500 lethal overdoses. So, the last drug bust was in October on the same street removing 138 of fentanyl. So, thank you so much. I'd love to hear about this. sad to hear about these, but I love that we're getting I want to appoint his name. Um, I wanted to say something about this. I see. You know, I have my iPad here. People are wondering what I'm doing. Half the time I'm going on looking at I'm looking at what's going around there and I just see so many code violations and it's really frustrating to me to hear this gentleman what this gentleman's going through and I'm sorry a lot of it is up north of 52 um but I was in Moon Lake this afternoon on the agenda and um I had on another street come out to me because I was sitting there for a long time looking at stuff and he came what are you doing and I mentioned I was commissioner not his commissioner um but I was doing my research for coming up today and he said you know code enforcement comes through here all the time but they never do anything and he said there's so many violations around here but for me to call He said, "I have to put my name on it. I can't be anonymous." So, I am hoping that that went through. But I just wish that we could be a little more I think that's our own rule that someone

enforcement officers see a violation. They are out.

Um, but this one he mentioned to me because he was really frustrated because he owns two and he said he went to pull a permit to be legal to put in a And they told him he had to get an offic and then he turned it into a house. So there is no There's no mail, but someone liv I I feel for the people who want to follow the rules and want to live. You know, they've invested in their home and they we actually have a commissioner who is so frustrated because in his neighborhood he's got very obvious. This is Wow. And then organized And then I just want to shout out just last week had 9

[clears throat]

and how much of sometimes And then this is for fire rescue. And since the burn was enacted, January 28th, respond outside. 13's office. I don't have anything. All right, Chase, we gave you thank you. I I didn't hear what was in the house.

I can give you Ralph Lair inter affairs morning. Um so so currently we are getting ready to go into budget conference. The House and the Senate rolled out their budgets uh uh last week. Um today the Senate um or over the weekend the Senate was gathering and working on amendments. The House is not doing amendments to their budget. So they're getting those in posture ready to go to a conference at the end of the week going into um conference. Uh we had one item, the decon truck for the fire department, partially funded in the House, fully funded in the Senate. Uh And then also in the Senate, uh

that's it in the house.

That's it in the house. And then also going into uh the budget, uh we had money for Rangeland Boulevard. Uh and those were the only two projects we had going into it. Um again

again we'll have a better feel when the Senate rolls out with the amendments included. Placeholders that we will have going into conference and I anticipate two additional projects will be included but until I see it in black and white don't really want to discuss. Thank you. It's noon and we will see

nothing for city again. We're not getting nothing for the day. asking for that wasting never too