05.17.2022 Pasco Board of County Commissioners Meeting (Morning Session)

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i would like to call to order the pasco county board of county commission 10 o'clock am meeting of may 17th at this time please silence all your electronic devices and mute your microphones if you're at home please wise for the invocation and the pledge of allegiance o merciful creator your hand is open wide to satisfy the needs of every living creature make us thankful for your loving providence and grant that we remembering the account that we must one day give may be faithful stewards of your good gifts of the united amen of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay madam clerk can you please call the role yes district one commissioner oakley district two commissioner moore here district four commissioner fitzpatrick here district five commissioner mariano here district three chairman starkey here partially okay now is the time for public comment citizens are given an opportunity to comment on any current or or future agenda item coming before the board and on other business under the board's purview today's public comment will be handled as follows first we will take public comment from those who are here in person then we will take public comment from those who have pre-registered for a webex link and are currently on cue we request that when you address the board comments are not directed personally against a commissioner or team member but rather directed at the issues this provides mutual respect between board members and the public after stating your name and address for the clerk a three minute timer will be activated and after two minutes a single beep will indicate you have one minute left when your time is up two beeps will sound and you should close your comments webex participants will be disconnected automatically when their time is up madam clerk do we have anyone signed up for public comment this morning yes uh madam chair we do have some signed up and uh one person signed up via webex but is not online as of yet so i'll go ahead and call the first person signed up is wendy ralston burris hello um once you reach the podium if you can state your name and address for the record and then you can begin your comments all right um i am homeless my address is pasco county and my name is wendy ralston birth thank you you may begin i'm a i am wendy burris and i'm a resident of pasco county i'm a voter and i'm homeless and disabled citizen of this country i attend pasco hernandez state college full-time how is it possible pasco county has a housing crisis answers could be the rich get richer and the poor get poorer homeless need to

disappear or be jailed and then we always have rental gouging in pasco county god has blessed me with saint vincent de paul who has housed me in a hotel while my housing is trying to be established but hotel housing is not the answer pasco county is one of the largest counties in florida surely this county must own property to help accommodate humans with disabilities in handicaps i get ssdi my monthly check is 920 i can't afford housing in pasco county why is there only one coalition for the homeless in pasco and the coalition is located in zephyr hills the public bus doesn't even run there but that's another meeting section 8 and hud housing are not even able to be found and rented in pasco county a slice of paradise except if you are homeless this board of county commissioners has decided that he or she is above the supreme court and god's law the supreme court has ruled panhandling to be legal this board of county commissioners even run the tale sheriff naco needed more funding from pasco county but denied the county commissioners even threatened the citizens with jail or fines for aiding and helping the poor humans of pasco county if a resident helps a human in need it's punishment and it's undemocratic on friday night a 75 year old was put out on the streets by her choice her choice by saint vincent paul was a nursing home or nothing she chose nothing pasco county a slice of paradise if you are wealthy but if you are poor there's not even a homeless or emergency shelter baker acts and jails are utilized instead the poor or homeless class the humans in pasco county have 30 human and civil rights the right to shelter the right to privacy and the right just to be free are only a few examples pasco county commissioners are not providing for certain types of humans that reside in the county and in each city in the county every city such as holiday need accommodations for the poor citizen the old firehouse 12 on mouse stretch is empty the building's not being utilized a great place for underprivileged to shower to wash clothes and use the bathroom and to shave the county of pasco i don't understand at all because my voter's car is registered to downtown port richie it's a building and i have a mayor for a building and i have a chief of police for a building i can't find a downtown or a reason for a mayor or a reason for chief of police if this current group of commissioners abolished port ritchie the county could accommodate the lower class citizens and voters the humans with the county-owned property and port richie being utilized to accommodate the lower class humans and citizens this would ease many poor citizens and help to attain some of the 30 human needs the voters right to shelter the voter's right to be free thank you thank you very much put themselves in a homeless person's

shoes kathy do we have anyone here that um can because there were some things there that were not correct so we want to help you so if you can go out back we can get some of that straightened out okay next uh next individual signed up dr octavio blanco hello dr travia blanco 16543 state road 54 lutz 33558 i'm trying to get through a lot of things in a few minutes um i'm going to start out by saying the prayer that we started this with gave me an idea of really what i really am because i'm a veterinarian i've had to take on hats as a lawyer a negotiator over the years many many different occasions uh but really what i really am is a steward and we asked about being faithful stewards that's why i've tried to be with our place since we came in 1958 we tried to take care of the place um back then between 41 and gun on 54 it was all farmers dairy we knew everybody that's how it was not that way no more the last one left essentially like a unicorn because uh people throw money at them and they'll say why won't you take this well i'm taking care of my place i'm trying to do what's best well take the money oh i haven't done it okay so anyway what's been happening and i know i saw i read the story about the fellow from the metropolitan commission that came out and spoke to you a couple week the last meeting about what we have to do here to deal with people leaving the county to work every day and in the employment centers and everything and so it reminded me that actually um i invented employment centers probably 20 years ago talking to john gallagher and steve simon for quite some time saying look we have to do something to bring you know jobs here we can't keep people leaving the area and that sort of thing and so it took a while um we finally got it done and then i proceeded to work with the neighbor at the time doug weiland to get a dri done on the whole property and we got this huge project done had several thousand square feet office towers my place and all this sort of thing then those economic crash and everything went away so i've continued working on it and what i've really been trying to do is sure increase the economic situation of pasco but also protect the natural resource my places is half pretty much developable and half woods and swamps and i'm trying to do both so back when the county commission hired urban land institute keep going okay to do this study about where to put these places and all they looked at mine as being the number one site because it's location proximity to the airport so i could tell i needed some some help so probably a year and a half two years ago i started working my old classmate from

high school julian mitchell and trying to meet with state officials try to get you know big companies to come here things like that hasn't worked out so here's where we are right now the offers keep pouring in there's a reason some there's so much multi-family because they pay crazy amounts of money all the time and so i would still prefer to have my place be 100 jobs zero multifamily but even from i understand about the requirements today there's a 20 requirement for multi-family even on the best employment center sites so if i have people uh you know come in i want to be sure that if i'm wrong tell me but that's still my my my primary goal and i still want to do that but the money keeps being pushed out he pushes at me i don't know what to do eventually so there we go um david do you want to meet him out back okay thank you thank you very much great seeing you thank you you don't need to put multifamily on employment side he'll explain that to you okay next next is pastor troy peterson good morning commissioners troy peterson somebody cares pasco hernando 8114 leo kidd port richie florida first off i want to thank the board of commissioners for recognizing may 5th for the national day of prayer it's been a real blessing i've been here six years and i believe for the last 20 plus years somebody cares pasco has been heading up national day of prayer right out here praying praying for our governmental leaders praying for our cities praying for pasco county now i've been coming here for about a year and the lord spoke to me and what i recognize is you commissioners really want to see pascal great many in this great nation ministers of the gospel recognize pasco county as a hub for revival now think about that as a hub for for revival because the word of god says in them last days i will pour out my spirit on all flesh and so we're getting ready to move into a great awakening we see the world it's going like chaos all around us and i believe wholeheartedly if you commissioners would allow the somebody cares pastors to come in and lead in the invocation and pray in jesus name god will bless pascal county i want to just share a brief scripture in acts chapter 4. now mind you this is after the death burial and resurrection of jesus christ peter is preaching to the multitudes he's preaching to some of

the very ones that crucified jesus and they're telling him no you can't pray in jesus name no you can't lay the hands on the sick you can't preach jesus christ resurrected from the dead and this is his response he says and there is salvation in no one else there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved so i'm here to tell you that if we would recognize jesus christ in the invocation and the prayer like we are in some of the other cities god will honor that thank you for your time thanks thank you um next person signed up is uh patricia shade good morning uh my name is patricia shade i'm a homeowner in district five and i reside at one three four two six chicago ave hudson florida three four six six nine and i'm a local realtor under the brokerage of caldwell banker fi grandson i first want to thank each of you you hold a position where you are often expected to put sleep and personal time on the back burner so i just want to commend you for that i also want to extend my appreciation for all you've done and all you will continue to do but i think we can all agree that there's always going to be more we can get done so just recently i had the opportunity to visit a few homeless camps in my district with commissioner mariano the sites were much larger than i ever envisioned and the conditions much worse than i could have imagined so i just want to you know thank you for allowing me that opportunity to see that firsthand this concern for the homeless and the areas that they take claim to is just one action item that of many that the committee west market action committee has discussed it takes dedication hard work time collaboration individuals to set to step up if we can find positive solutions with successful outcomes i come before you as a committee member of west market i'll call it w mac for the sake of time our committee members come from all walks of life contributing a history of community involvement relationships and resources ready with your support of course to become the collective voice for the residents of pasco county our committee members already engage with the residents of our county on an intimate level in their day-to-day professional and personal personal lives if wmac could become the point of contact for immediate direct connections to resources the county already has in place while collaborating with the county staff and other local organizations to bring positive solutions rather than

complaints just imagine what we could accomplish together i know that the commission the elected officials county staff local business owners endless volunteers and the residents all want the same thing a safe vibrant place to live to provide a place where generations to come want to stay so let's stand for a county that doesn't just say they care about the residents instead let's be the county that truly supports them so please support w mack the collective voice for the residents of pasco county thank you thank you thank you for volunteering the next person signed up is patty templeton good morning everyone my name is patty templeton my address is 5115 muscle shell drive new port richie 34655 thank you for this opportunity to speak before you i am a 36-year resident of newport richie and i'm also the executive director of a non-profit organization called one community now that's been operating in pasco county for the past 13 years we're focused on working together changing lives and some of our our programs you may be familiar with we do the pakistac program where we're feeding over 1300 children every weekend in 37 different schools bless you we also hold operation stand down where we help homeless and at-risk veterans to transition into a stable lifestyle by connecting them to the resources that we have throughout our community our office is located in downtown newport richie where every day we are meeting with families that are struggling with homelessness and at risk of being homeless because of the lack of affordable housing in our community our success in helping people has been in collaborating with others and once we identify the need that the person is facing we make sure to work with the government agencies local churches other non-profits local businesses and private individuals to assist the person with their long-term solutions and that's why i'm here today i believe in working together to change lives i believe that the same principle applies to our community i want to thank you for the encouraging the formation of the west market action committee committee as i too am a member of that and i believe that there we can work together to identify some of the different strengths and weaknesses within our community on the west market so we understand our community is a big community and that there's a lot of focus on growth and new development throughout our our county but that's why the west market action committee it communicate west market action committee is so important that we have a diverse group of people who represent our county on the west market there and come from all walks of life and that they're willing to come together they're volunteering their time

to look at these issues and to talk with the different citizens in the community to discover what are our strengths what's our weaknesses what are the opportunities and what are the threats then come up with solutions that address many of the needs that are growing in our community and we can present these back to you through well thought out solutions my former pastor greg johnson always shared a maasai proverb with us that basically said all knowledge is not in one head that is the principle that i want to follow with the west market action committee and that we take the time to gather the knowledge of all the different members of the community i hope you will continue to encourage and support the formation of this group and allow us to come back and present ideas and solutions for the west market thank you thanks patty all right the last person signed up is stephen ackel or akel is there anyone who wishes to speak um that has not signed up and if so please line up in the middle no one else here wishes to address okay good morning good morning excuse me my name is i apologize my name is steve akel i'm a representative with the international associate of association of firefighters local 4420. um my address is protected alrighty good morning my name is steve and i like to go to fires and car accidents and calls for service i never want to see any harm come to anyone however when smoke fills your hallway glass litters of the road or you or your child have that honest unexpected emergency at 2 am myself and 600 of my brothers and sisters race to be the ones to save you in your emergency and we train day and night to do so because that is what we are paid to do and we take pride in that our biggest concern at this moment is our citizens the people that we serve and today we are here not for us but in support of them the question of will the fire truck or ambulance be available and if so will they despite their best effort be close enough to get to you in time is not a question we want anyone to have to ask we know stations are long overdue i've heard it discussed more times than i'd like how many new stations do we have the answer given in this room has been two new stations the forecasted answer is one new and one rebuild however the real answer as of today is zero and now the two new stations that should have been completed years ago are delayed yet again due to crews walking off the job while the neighborhoods continue to fly up around us ambulances and stations need to be prioritized approving stuff that is discussed prior to these meetings like cyano kits is greatly appreciated

excuse me however approving boots for new firefighters at bocc meetings is not premier those are minimum mandatory things to do the job it is this lack of support that has been a contributing factor to losing 50 firefighters averaging five and a half years of service to other departments experienced firefighters are leaving from over utilization under compensation and the feeling of no help in sight from the commission we are losing experienced rescuers while trying to replace them with new ones and losing those people also another issue with underfunding is that we are hiring five times more new hires to try and replace the ones that we're losing and trying to train a larger department to keep up with growth all while the training budget hasn't been increased in years and the current training building is in shambles and nearly condemned it is long overdue that we start making real change to actually be premier rather than just a slogan and quickly before we lose the opportunity and people to do so we all know the numbers are out there by not fixing these issues you are failing our people and not fulfilling your purpose however we are willing to work with you to fix the performance we are striving to give our citizens premier but we need your support we can't have a champagne premier taste on a beer budget please prioritize our citizens by prioritizing and adequately funding your firefighters so that we can do so that we can do what we are trained to do thank you thank you very much uh okay so no one else lined up to speak here do we have anyone online we had someone sign up to register it online but they are not connected [Applause] okay then um we will close public comment and i will move on to the consent agenda okay all right um is anyone here for water reuse week great if you could step up to the podium please and i will read the resolution good morning jared starkey members of the board um jason mickel director utilities operations maintenance that's chris bacardi he's our reclaimed supervisor we just wanted to stop in today and say thank you for all your support over the years um quick fact the southwest florida water management district 16 county region has name has known named pasco county the largest residential reclaimed water system within that region we have 24 000 residential accounts which the good part about that just to put that in perspective is about 15 million gallons a day of offset of potable drinking water so your efforts over there and we have the head of tampa bay water here somewhere yeah it's an excellent accomplishment to have

that um within our utility that's that's conserved water that's dollar saved um it's an excellent accomplishment and you know this board um as well as passports has supported us and made our job a lot easier so we just want to say thank you um and appreciate all the support chris all right so we're going to read the oh go ahead and speak then we'll bring you back thank you as well and we appreciate it thank you um i wish i had it but i don't all right you want to read the resolution resolution number 22-131 a resolution by the border count county commissioners of pasco county florida declaring the third week of may as water reuse week in pasco county and calling upon citizens and businesses to help protect our precious water resources whereas water recycling is an integral part of wastewater management water resource management and ecosystem management in all of florida and raz reused water is purified using science-based standards to meet specific needs including environmental restoration irrigation industrial operations and energy generation and whereas there are many benefits to using reclaimed water such as reducing potable water use decreasing fertilizer application reducing discharge into rivers and bays from the waterway wastewater plants and most importantly ensuring a sustainable and cost-effective water supply and whereas florida has risen to be the nation's leader in water reuse using 820 million gallons of reclaimed water per day to conserve fresh water supplies and replenish our rivers streams lakes and aquifers and whereas florida's permitted reuse capacity is more than 1.8 billion gallons per day representing approximate approximately 70 percent of florida's total permitted capacity for all domestic wastewater treatment facilities and whereas 44 of the wastewater in our water management district is currently being reused exceeding both the state and the national averages and res pasco county has implemented a dynamic reclaimed water program which encourages safe efficient and effective use of reclaimed water and res paso county treats wastewater to public treats wastewater to public access standards more than 712 million gallons to two reservoirs and 11 tanks and delivers approximately 25 million gallons per day of high quality reclaimed water to 24 447 residents and a variety of other customers and locations now therefore be it resolved by the board of county commissioners of pasco county florida that said board hereby declares the third week of may 2022 as reu as water reuse week in pasco county and calls upon citizens and businesses to help protect our precious water resources by practicing water saving measures and using reclaimed water in an effective and efficient and efficient manner done unresolved in regular session with the quorum president and voting the 17th day of may 2022. for approval second all in favor

aye opposed jack um i'm not feeling well okay so um and if commissioner oakley wasn't ill i wouldn't be here but so i'm going to let you touch these and take these down you don't want me to come down there they're right wait they're right here no no i handed it to you yeah these are yours okay you get to do this one too congratulations thank you great job reason away yeah i guess let's just stand up we'll do that all right everybody one two three thanks [Applause] hi commissioner moore's resolution okay is anyone here for older americans month in paso county please step up to the podium [Music] okay i'll go ahead and read the resolution resolution number 22-129 a resolution by the board of county commissioners of pasco county florida declaring may as older americans month in pasco county whereas there are more adults reaching retirement age and remaining strong and active than ever before and whereas older americans are a vital part of paso county's geographic makeup and raz pasco county includes a growing number of older americans who contribute their strength wisdom and experience to our community and whereas communities benefit from people of all ages abilities and backgrounds are welcomed included and supported and whereas older adults are in entitled to dignified independent lives free from fears myths and misconceptions about aging and whereas pasco county and the area agency on aging of pasco and pinellas recognize the need to create a community that provides services to support older americans needs to thrive and live independently as long as possible and whereas every citizen in pasco county should strive to recognize understand and address the evolving needs of older adults and whereas our society is dependent upon integrational cooperation and benefits from our collective efforts to serve older adults and the people who love and care for them and paso county and the area agency of aging of pascual and pinellas work together to build an even better community for our older residents by planning programs that encourage independence ensuring activities are responsive to individual needs and increasing access to services that support aging and aging in place and whereas older adults deserve to be recognized for the contributions they have made and will continue to make to the culture economy and character of our community and our nation now therefore be it resolved by the board of county commissioners of pasco county florida that said board hereby declares may as older americans month and urges every resident to recognize the contributions of their older citizens help to create an inclusive society and join efforts to support older americans choices about

how they age in their communities dunnon resolved in regular session with a quorum president involving and voting this 17th day of may 2022. second all in favor aye opposed okay passes congratulations if you want to address the board it's great seeing you nice to see you too chair starkey i'd like to thank the board of county commissioners in particular christina fitzpatrick commissioner fitzpatrick sits on our board to ensure that the needs of seniors in pasco county are being met last year together with everybody standing with me we served 67 500 seniors and made sure they did not go into nursing homes that they were able to enjoy the beauty of pasco and pinellas and live lives that are safe independent and healthy and i'd like to thank you very much for naming may older americans month thank you very much wonderful all right um yeah well quick word and i'll just come down we'll do the same thing and then people here we'll stay behind um i had the opportunity to serve on the florida department of elder affairs appointed by speaker weatherford before i was on this commission obviously very spent a lot of time over helping to oversee the area agency for agencies on aging throughout the state of florida and jimmis knows this um my background being in the home health industry um and caring for thousands and thousands of mostly older americans we understand the importance of obviously everything that each and every one of you do you know times have changed though right what is an older american these days i mean right i mean seriously what what is i mean we think about it you know there's people in their 80s and 90s that are just as active as every one of us that are sitting up on this dice now so i mean i have gray hair you know i mean you know i'm getting there myself right yeah it's the job right i didn't have gray hair when i became a commissioner just kidding um but no we again you know it times are different now right so i it's hard for me to have a distinction of really what we think about as an older american is these days again people are living longer people are willing and wanting to work longer to stay active so um you know we we appreciate everything you're doing and and keep up the good work and uh you know congratulations on everything you do i appreciate it i'm going to come down to just um we'll do that we'll add them to last time oh yeah commissioner fitzpatrick thank you as a member of the board i really do enjoy coming to the meetings and participating the area agency on aging of pasco pinellas has been partnering with pasco county for over 30 years and together we've been able to prevent

seniors going into nursing home placements we provide home delivered meals to seniors activities to senior centers transportation to doctors visits and also helped with utilities we are appreciative of the funding that provided by the area agency on aging pasco pinellas and look forward to working together for many more years and i appreciate everything you do thank you and madam chair yeah if i could um i could say you guys all do a phenomenal job um and jameth the way you approach everybody to try to get them to help and know what the great work that's done for the seniors in this whole area and both sides of the county is just amazing so appreciate you all thank you thank you all right we're going to take a photo and we'll stand up behind you guys i said they could do whatever they wanted all right we need a we need a couple over here all right all right first and then all right one two three perfect thank you yeah look at amy [Applause] this is yours now yep all right the next resolution is in regards to fertilizer awareness month if you're here for this resolution please step up to the podium okay i'll go ahead and read the resolution resolution number 22-128 a resolution by the board of county commissioners of pasco county florida declaring may as fertilizer awareness month in pasco county whereas many local bodies of water are experiencing raised nitrate levels runoff from residential fertilizers can contribute to this change in water quality and whereas when fertilizer is properly applied to a lawn the introduced nitrogen is absorbed however if fertilizer is incorrectly applied it can run off into local waters lowering the water quality and threatening the ecosystems that depend on the water source and whereas when it rains excess nitrogen and phosphorus flows into our storm water systems and eventually our local bodies of water the access the excess amounts of these chemicals can cause cause algae blooms lowering the oxygen level in the water and creating a substantial risk to aquatic life and raz residential fertilizer is a significant source of nitrogen in the tampa bay area accounting for about 20 percent of the nitrogen carried to in-storm water systems and razz pasco county adopted a fertilizer ordinance which regulates the application of fertilizer within the county and whereas the tampa bay area receives 60 percent of its average annual rainfall between june 1st and september 30th this is when there is the greatest potential for fertilizer runoff and whereas tampa bay water approved a ten thousand dollar grant for keep pasco beautiful in conjunction with the pasco county government this grant for funded a fertilizer

done them for like 20 years improving and they're better and better and better and med effect usf is actually studying what the results of these collections are and what the effects are going to be so it's a time when now we're looking at doing these up and down the whole coast and if you guys want to jump in with it i'd love to have you yeah absolutely we've actually partnered with the tampa bay estuary program on different things we have a workshop that we're partnering with them um the patel college and that's going to take place next week on what people can do for the fertilizer awareness excellent well thank you um there are communities that don't allow fertilizer during certain times of the year i don't think we've gone that far but we're we're actually trying to work with that too with some of our realtors and our board of directors trying to get the word out to hoas about what they can do for proper fertilizer use most people are good people and want to do the right thing they just aren't aware of what that right thing might be so yeah all right thank you good message all right uh jack you'll take this down man i'm sure while he's walking down remember remember right prior to covid one of the things i brought up was i'm like playing um painting the um the drains around the coast and stuff i think the person unfortunately that um was gonna head that up is is not with the county anymore but i think it's something we could oh that'd be look into and you'd be great you talked about the baffle boxes and stuff too yeah kristen what's the next clean up [Music] um our next cleanup is going to be june 8th we're actually partnering with the city of newport richie on world oceans day and then we also have our key pasco beautiful cleanup that will be september 17th which is the third saturday of september okay all right thank you rs4 rs4 is national public works week if you're here for uh national public works week if you could please make your way to the podium that's just a few people just a couple oh my goodness so that's what the crowd's for beautiful wow inside so many i'm glad like i asked for those ahead of time yes commissioner mariano's i thought all those people were public comment earlier all right here we go are we ready let me go ahead and read it okay resolution i'm going to read resolution number 22-130 a resolution by the board of county commissioners of pasco county florida declaring may 15th through may 21 2022 as national public works week in pasco county and encouraging all citizens to support public works activities this week and throughout this year

whereas public works personnel focus on providing infrastructure services that are vitally important to creating sustainable and resilient communities in pasco county and whereas public works infrastructure and services could not be provided without the dedicated service of the county's public works professionals these professionals include maintenance workers equipment operators engineers support staff and employees at all managerial levels and res public works personnel work to rehabilitate improve and maintain the county's transportation network and storm water infrastructure and whereas it is important for leaders workers and citizens in our county to understand and maintain interest in the importance of public works and the various public works programs throughout pasco county and raz the public works staff in paso county are qualified and talented individuals who come together to create a team of dedicated professionals who understand the value their work has to the community and whereas 2022 marks the 62nd annual national public works week sponsored by the american public works association the association wishes to recognize public works employees for their substantial contributions to our daily health safety and comfort now therefore be it resolved by the board of county commissioners of pasco county florida that said board hereby declares may 15 through may 21 2022 as national public works week in paso county and encourages all citizens to support public works activities this week and throughout the year dunnon resolved in regular session with a quorum present and voting the 17th day of may 2022. second all in favor aye aye opposed well hello nothing's out there getting done today just we're glad you're here and uh boy you're very important to our citizens in pasco county i mean uh people are affected by the work you do every day so glad you're here madam chair yeah commissioner mariano i just want to say uh back in 2004 we had the four hurricanes and i was sitting watching these things go and kind of going out there looking at what was going on and just thought we needed to do better and i want to say from where we were then to where we are now has just been amazing i mean from being on the news time after time with flooding at ironbark jasmine lakes timber oaks all over the place has been it was painful to see it and it was painful to go through the process but i'll tell you what a joy it is for those people that in those neighborhoods that now don't flood um you know coastal flooding is going to happen with storm surge etc certain events will go but uh all the way from tropical storm debbie when we had fixed that leisure beach leisure lane area we used to flood out all the time it was dry as a bone that night to the people at tim brooks jasmine i'm going to tell you they are so thankful

the improvements coming up with holiday hills sea pines coming what you guys have done to this community has been nothing but phenomenal and i know mike you picked a lot of good leaders as i'm looking at them right here uh you guys have been phenomenal in the trenches the work you do for our cleanups is incredible as well so i'm going to say you guys make a difference every day in these lives of the citizens of pasco county so i want to thank you for all that and i would echo that too i i don't think i've had a constituent with water in the house in a couple years so i'm going to knock on wood as we approach the next rainy season but i know um i know everyone's appreciative of the work you do commissioner moore thank you madam chair yeah and thank you each and every one of you i mean you guys are really like the heart of pascal county i mean we you're out there every day i'll tell a fun a story back long before i was a county commissioner i moved to paso county in 2007 it's probably two years after i moved to passover county and on a block where i live there was an issue where things weren't let's put it this way things weren't moving through the pipes very well if you get my drift right um but i went out there and i was talking to some of the people in public's works and um and just you know at that time i go wow man these are these are dedicated people just great individuals that wanted to take care of the situation and just i the conversations i had with folks again this was before i was even elected you know and then when i became elected i started going around i would stop my car truck every once while and just and chat with people and most people didn't even know who i was because i was just first elected and stuff but i just always got a sense of pride from everything each and every one of you guys did you know and and i appreciate it i know this so this is a password county i appreciate it i mean i mean you get a lot of you guys and gals are out there in the heat of the day and while we're in here in an office setting you're out there in the rain and the in the heat and uh but yeah and dealing with all this and so again thank you all so very much we really appreciate everything you do so thank you all right i think this is oh go ahead commissioner i would like to say thank you for everything that you do and you everyone's always keeping me up to speed and i enjoy getting the phone calls from citizens oh what's going on with this project or that project and so when i see the funding coming in and then from legislature and then to see the projects being completed and everything being carried out and followed through it's really exciting to see so thank you for everything that you do i'm sure one more thought before i go down there and and just to say recently um we did the project over on tower

drive and that road used to flood all the time and when the new craft like brewery come in there was kind of out there with those guys we looked i see a canals here canals there put a plan together and i got a text message after it was completed before all the asphalt was down and a lady text me and she said for the first time in over 20 years after a storm event i can use my road thank you very much so that's the type of work you guys are doing so thank you very much all right uh commissioner mariano will go down to spending i think there's too many brothers to go down we'll just stay up here yeah just everyone come out and move around this might be the biggest group we've ever had is this the whole department or are there more that's every county employee no they said there's still more some have them come up here i don't care who cares don't come up well if they want to they want to hey why don't why don't some of you guys like come up these steps and stand up here too yeah with us because there's no way you're all going to fit there we go come up here what's going on man how are you doing great good to see you squeeze the chairs back all right there we go squeeze on it there we go well maybe like some that go on the other side too right there there we go yeah some of you guys come around we're almost ready hang on guys you can scoot that chair out of the way if you need to yeah yeah pull it pull the chairs out don't want the chair in front of you okay good yep okay everybody right here you thanks awesome thank you [Applause] thanks memorial weekend okay we are going to move on to the one more we have another one we have one more all right come here patrick i put an x on it okay did you put an x on that i did i xed you out already like oh we're all done go ahead we we got to get keep okay is um anyone here the next resolution is in regards to peace officers memorial day if you're here please step to the podium no one's going to be left but chuck and uh kelly oh here we come we got to get through the crowd yeah [Music] welcome gentlemen i'll go ahead and read the resolution okay resolution number 22-133 a resolution of by the board of county commissioners of pasco county florida declaring may 15th as peace officers memorial day and the week of may 15 through may 21st 2022 as police

week in pasco county whereas in 1962 president john f kennedy signed public law 87-726 which is 36 usc 136 which authorized the president to proclaim may 15th of of every year as police officers memorial day in honor of the federal state and local officers who have been killed disabled and otherwise injured in the line of duty this resolution also also authorized the president to designate the week in which peace officers memorial day falls as national police week and raz as federal all federal state and local police officers sheriffs and law enforcement officers across the united states serve with valor dignity and integrity and whereas among their many duties law enforcement officers are charged with pursuing justice for all individuals and always acting with fidelity to the constitutional and civil rights of the public and whereas for generations brave men and women throughout paso county have answered the call to serve and protect our communities our law enforcement officers embody the courage and honor that represent the best of pasco county and whereas in moments of danger and desperation the first people we turn to are law enforcement officers these often unsung heroes risk their lives so that they can live in peace and security and whereas law enforcement officers endure long shifts in dangerous and unpredictable circumstances however our law enforcement officers are able to demonstrate remarkable self-control when operating under extreme pressure all above above all pasco county local law enforcement officers maintain the highest levels of professionalism and where and whereas law enforcement officers have negative comp have navigate often navigate complex challenging situations while being exposed to some of the worst scenarios anyone could dare to imagine scenarios to which most citizens have the privilege of turning a blind eye and whereas we all owe respect and gratitude to all of pasco county's law enforcement these men and women worked tirelessly to protect us while putting their lives on the line to maintain and defend civil order in our community and raz law enforcement officers who wear the badge are selfless public servants who put themselves in harm's way to keep us safe and deserve our support and appreciation now therefore be it resolved by the board of county commissioners of pasco county florida that said board hereby declares may 15th as peace officers memorial day and the week of may 15 through may 21st as police week in pasco county dunnon resolved in regular session with a quorum present and voting the 17th day of may 2022 motion to approve second all in favor aye opposed okay commissioner fitzpatrick yes beginning in 1982 a gathering of the survivors and supporters of law enforcement the national memorial service honors peace officers that have

paid the ultimate sacrifice decades later known as police week has grown to include cities counties and state law enforcement officers around the nation during this month during this week we honor those that have fallen or permanently harmed in the line of duty i commend all here today in pasco county and through the great state of florida for putting the public safety ahead of your own we pray god will keep you safe while you perform your tasks and your duties thank you for your service thank you very much and um uh do you have something to take down there yes well we appreciate your service to the community for sure and if do you guys want to go down or do you want to stay up here more people we can get on there oh yeah oh no wait wait i'm sorry you are welcome to address the board oh yes if you want to you don't have to cyrus robinson chief port richie police department on behalf of the men and women of the port richie police department i'd like to thank the commission for this recognition is very much appreciated thank you very much all right all right anyone else okay we have some three commissioners coming down i like the patch is beautiful sideways slimmer [Laughter] right you guys ready one two three hold on i gotta do a few more everybody's eyes need to be open one more sorry thank you okay thank you thank you thank you [Applause] [Music] now we are on to the consent agenda and we have um the following items c11 by uh attorney diane snyder for to pull and revise c17 andrew baxter pull and revise c18 andrew baxter pull and revise we are not going to withdraw i cross it out i think c25 um okay sorry scribbled over it um we're withdrawing c38 by margaret smith mike carbala c49 pull and discuss jason mickel c-51 withdraw marcy esberg c52 pull and revise and commissioner moore ac 124 pull and discuss are there any other items you'd like to see pulled from the consent agenda i'm going to make a comment on one but i can do that under discussion okay seeing that i'll take a motion it'll move second all in favor aye oh i forgot to do discussion i'm just really glad to see those uh uh openings to the starkey wilderness park happen um

south of the of the river so um that's on your uh on your consent agenda and it's my gosh it's been something we've been working on forever so glad to see that going through and those are for the public to access the lower half of the park okay we'll move on to c11 madam chairman members of the board um we are pulling and revising c11 the account um for the transfer in um was the wrong account number um and before you there is a new munis printout showing the correct account number for outside legal accounts before approval is revised all in favor aye opposed passes then we have c17 and c18 c17 andrew baxter facilities management director c17 is to update this task order exhibit b was not [Laughter] in the system um we have now attached that which is the fee summary with that uh additional documentation we recommend approval full approval second all in favor aye opposed same issue existed on c18 the fee summary was not scanned in it has now been attached with that record with that attachment we now recommend approval move approval second on favor aye opposed thank you very much we are on to c38 that's a withdrawal c 49 is also a withdrawal c-51 c-49 is a pool in disgust oh i'm sorry skipped right over here go back and check that numbers no no i i had bob pulled in with you thank you mike carbala assistant county administrator for for public infrastructure uh i'm here to present to you today uh mr david allen pe for confirmation as our new utilities director the concept of utilities department is rather new to pasco county uh probably we created the department about three years ago with the advent of the public infrastructure branch before that utilities director position kind of rolled up to the aca level since it was it was a branch function but with the expansion of those duties it was necessary to create a utilities department um mr rob maron uh faithfully served in that position in a couple of years and you know decided he had some other career goals and so that position is vacated we we conducted a national search and i'm happy again that uh mr allen is here to to join us he has over 30 years of local government utility operations and public works experience most recently as an assistant city manager with the city county of broomfield before that public works and utility director and utility positions with los angeles city of anaheim

among others and he's spent the past 15 years of his career more in the executive leadership level he holds a bachelor of science in civil engineering from colorado state university as well as a master of science and water resources from university of southern color california i'm excited personally to have him lead this new this nearly 550 men and women department in our county that provides essential services to our citizens and so uh with that uh present to you mr allen to come and say a couple words good morning good morning thank you michael for that introduction uh good morning chair vice chair and commission members um i'm just really excited about the opportunity to come here to pasco county my wife and i were looking for an opportunity to relocate from colorado to florida our daughter's going to be moving out here this coming summer and so this was just a great opportunity i got the opportunity to meet with a lot of the staff through the interview process and i'm looking forward to working with them and then also working with each of you more closely once i come on board so thanks for approval second all in favor aye welcome yeah i hope you can find a place to live [Laughter] good luck [Laughter] okay then we have um jason is jason still here is that that's the withdrawal i'm sorry okay marcy let me double check here okay good morning commissioners for the record marcy esper director of community development uh item c52 is to spend funding with our state housing initiative partnership to purchase five units of affordable rental housing with our partner ace opportunities and the purchase price is 375 000 and the uh the contract as well as the memo the agenda memo was revised to 405 000 to include closing costs wonderful and i'm sure yeah quick question marcie where are these locations i'm trying to like they're right by um walmart uh um on the uh west side of 19 south of walmart uh in port richie okay so those apartments are in the back there yeah they're duplexes duplicate okay oh yeah we've been some of them okay i know exactly where that is good pricing all right so that's wonderful i'll take a motion move approval second all in favor aye opposed all right that passes wonderful commissioner moore ac124 i think mr baxter is going to come up for that one and then on all our firefighters left while we have one if you don't mind that mr baxter just highlight what the new uh training burn tower is for uh fire rescue absolutely the importance of it and andrew baxter

facilities management director for the record so this uh agenda item is to replace the training burn tower that was purchased in uh 2006. uh the the average lifespan of a burn tower is about 10 years so it's it's due for replacement and that we are going to be replacing the entire burn tower out at the location and uh it's over a half million dollar uh purchase to upgrade and update the entire burn tower out there which enables the firefighters to be able to train at that location for many more years to come excellent thank you move for approval well i i have a question because the memo was confusing to me because it has this statement in november 2022 pasco county fire rescue will need to undergo a state inspection well let me go to the next paragraph the construction of a new training center with the burn tower funded by the general obligation bond is delayed due to coven 19 pandemic supply chain shortages inflation and other causes it is currently expected that the existing training center will remain operational on a full-time basis for at least 10 years so the tower is separate from this comment uh that comment that specific paragraph is talking about part of the bond referendum was to whatever we were able to have at the end of the bond program we were planning to build an entire new training complex out near the jail this is this burn tower is at our existing complex up in shady hills and so that that is in reference to the new training center and there would be a burn tower at that new location as well but based on the market escalations that we're seeing um in the that we're seeing in for the construction of all the new and replacement fire stations we're re-evaluating that entire plan and this gives us time to do that by replacing this existing tower at the at the existing shitty hills training center okay and the county attorney just told me they got this out in two days high five without touching him i give him a high five okay yeah did did i get a motion in a second and we got a second all in favor aye opposed okay that passes good news okay um we are now on to the rs i've lost my script [Applause] okay let's move on to the first r and commissioner oakley is not here but this is a r58 a presentation by chuck a lot of public work stuff today so you're here on the right day right yes ma'am there was quite a few people i

thought they were here to see this presentation [Laughter] not so that's great i just want to thank you madam chair and members of the board for having me today for those of you who don't know me my name is chuck cardin i'm the general manager for tampa bay water and temp bay water is your regional wholesale water provider temp bay water was created by the member governments about 25 25 years next year will be our 25th anniversary and we are the sole and exclusive drinking water provider for the tampa bay region the local government's decision to create tampa bay water back in 1998 is one reason that our economy and our environment has thrived for the past 25 years water fuels our economy and we built a diversified and interconnected system that supplied the region for more than two decades in a very environmentally sound manner and currently this is uh what our sources look like there are three of them on the graph uh as you see groundwater sea water from we desalted and our river water currently we're running about 188 million gallons a day to serve our customers and 25 years ago this pie graph looked quite different it was a hundred percent groundwater as you may know up here in pasco county groundwater and right now these three sources serve enough water and treatment capacity to meet the region's needs for about the next seven years and that'll keep our economy thriving but as the population grows we need more water these are the current demands of the six member governments and as you can see pasco county the second bar set of bars is growing quite a bit hillsborough county as well but in pasco county you're taking about 35 million gallons a day and just to put that in perspective i worked for pasco county a long time ago 30 years ago those numbers were 17 million for pasco i can still remember it so you've doubled it in the 30 years since then right now we're working on bringing on new sources by 2028 to meet the growing needs and since 2018 2018 we've been studying three new water supply options and they've been in feasibility studies to see which one we could select next the first one is a new ground water well field in southern hillsborough county and it's made possible through aquifer recharge credits by hillsborough county where they would inject treated

reclaimed water on the coast and allow us to withdraw drinking water fresh drinking water inland about five miles in southern hillsborough county the next project is expanding our surface water treatment plant capacity we have a plant currently in the brandon area that's um 120 million gallons a day we've already uh increased it once back in 2010 and so this would be the next round uh increasing it by another 20 million gallons a day and the third option that we're looking at is uh expanding the desal facility uh down there in apollo beach next to the big bend power station it currently does uh it can do up to 25 million gallons a day and this would be an extension to increase that yielding all of these projects except for the groundwater well field would yield at least 10 million gallons a day yesterday we had our tampa bay water monthly board meeting as commissioner starkey knows very well the board did vote to withdraw and remove the south hillsborough county welfield at this time during this master water plan cycle it will be put back in the next cycle which actually is next year but currently there's only two options left here the surface water expansion and the d cell expansion so we're concentrating our efforts on these two projects to meet our needs for the next supply we'll talk about the surface water treatment plant expansion first it has two components to it and that it could include expanding the existing plant that i spoke of at its site or building a new one down by the reservoir which is in southern hillsborough county so that would be a new reservoir a new surface water treatment plant down there the capital cost range from 91 million to 146 million and also in a cost per thousand bases a life cycle cost those costs are a dollar forty four to two dollars and thirty one cents the next plant the seawater desal expansion is very important to our system because it's drought proof currently we're taking about 16 million gallons a day we use that plant during different times of the year in the dry season which is currently where we're at this facility could be expanded to provide another 10 million gallons a day but it is a very highly a lot of equipment mechanical facility and it's got a much higher capital cost as you see there 310 million to 365 million and that cost per thousand is about 8.56 so as i mentioned just now the cost in my overviews cost is not the only factor that we are looking at as we select the next project or a combination of the projects they also we are also considering

environmental sustainability and reliability under each of these headings there is a lot of detailed criteria under them for example cost includes capital cost operations and maintenance life cycle cost and whether the project can be phased environmental stewardship includes permitting carbon footprint and public acceptance and reliability includes resiliency technology risk factors all that go into the project to make it fit into our existing system and here's a schedule that we talked about yesterday we had a presentation from our system engineer so over the next several months we will be discussing these project confident concepts with your utility directors mr carbala and his staff his new utility director we will be also talking to the public and also to our board we have moved up the schedule a little bit from the news i just gave you we were trying to have the board select in the late months of this year maybe in october through december but we believe now that we're down to the two project concepts we will be available to recommend something by this august for the tampa bay water board and that concludes my brief presentation for you i would be happy to take any questions i'm sure i get a question sure [Music] you're talking about the cost per um thousand gallons earlier correct yes sir okay so currently if you're pulling out of the well fields in pasco county what is the cost per thousand gallons i generally give that answer it's been asked quite a bit uh for the three sources uh one two crossbar cypress and uh starkey yes they're all combined as ten oil fields and a consolidated permit and groundwater is generally in the one dollar range one dollar yes and the one dollar there's change on there i just in that give you a realm two dollars for surface water and four to five dollars for the d cell okay so approximately one dollar per thousand gallons in the pasco county well fields generally groundwater i've taking and treating groundwater is a lot easier let's say than the other two sources okay is there you're having to expand because obviously the growth in the region yes um let's say for example it was only pascal county pulling out of the well fields in pasco county is there is there enough water to satisfy the need of the citizens of pasco county in those well fields for the next 30 years 50 years if you didn't have the other five members correct taking out of the water that permit for the groundwater is 90

million gallons a day in in that area there's a few well a couple oil fields in hillsborough county but yes i would generally say you've got a lot of groundwater if you've had just pasco alone with that the permit like that okay i know i'm going back in history a little bit but so one dollar per thousand for the ground water good cost fix if you expand we're looking up to possibly over eight dollars per gallon we're not doing that these stuff selling yeah no we're not doing that okay five times more expensive two uh can you go i know your other slides stated um up to what was that number if you don't mind going back a little further okay there we go or the one for surface water treatment yes we know that but your other options were besides the desal there was a ground water well field and southern hillsborough county but you stated that it's been removed for consideration because of the uh credits we could not come to an agreement with hillsborough county on the cost of the credits yeah so because of possibly others not wanting to play ball the cost for pasco's county citizens even though the majority of the water or all the water can be taken care of for pasco county citizens through our own well fields well we're possibly going to pay more because other people don't want to get in the game commissioner moore you have to remember that some of those well fields aren't owned by us the only one owned by pasco is is it starkey um crossbar and albar is pinellas county well i'm aware of that that's no other story that's kind of a crazy thing when you can buy land in another county and take that water that was that was 1998 prior to 1998. all right the members had their own welfields uh they sold them all tampa water so right remember no no member government owns any of the well fields well and and i know and i know we don't but i was using as an example of this water is coming out of paschal canal let's just be honest um can i add to that we also the hillsborough river i say this at many tampa bay water board meetings that's that's pasco county best pasco county water as well that hillsboro city of tampa takes out of the hillsborough river are you pulling out of the barge or not the bar the uh bypass canal yes sir you are pulling the bypass okay pretty regularly i mean that it's a steady source of water it's primarily during the wet season and we have a reservoir down south that holds 15 billion gallons so when it's raining we have so much water we don't we can't use it all we put it in the reservoir

and that where we take it out during the dry season when we can't pull it out of the bypass canal and so we use the surface water all year but we only use the bypass canal portion of the year so if another county i'm not picking on any other counties on this but if another county again doesn't want to get in the game they're allowed to say no what can we do legislatively if anything or mr steinsnyder led legally to force people's hands if need be well first you're not going to like this but first thing i got to tell you is water is a state resource i understand so the water underlying pasco county is not pasco county's water and i know that i understand that fully but i've but we're we're hearing statements that other counties don't want to participate in allowing you you stated earlier that i mean right that they said no to a well field in the southern part of the county they said no to the credit we couldn't correct the credit they didn't okay no to the wealth of those okay sorry but the credits they didn't want to give up the credits correct so you have so it's a contractual relationship between the multiple counties so you have rights under your contract right that need that could be explored i have not been personally involved in any of these conversations but my guess having been in water for my entire career right is that this is a combination of a regulatory issue with swift mud and a proprietary issue for lack of a better term of the individual utilities that make up tampa bay water and so i would imagine that some exploration could be made i mean the reason that they can't permit the south hillsboro well field without the credits is because swiftnet doesn't like new groundwater wells period because of saltwater intrusion okay and so it's that dynamic package of you have multiple listen in the in the 70s all these counties were at each other's throats that's why west coast regional water supply was formed which was the predecessor to tampa bay water um so it's there's politics there's law there's a lot of things that have to go into could so it might behoove us i'm just having a conversation here to maybe talk to

legislators um to get involved in this process now so because we don't want our we don't want our ratepayers have to pay more because people aren't willing to are wanting to give up credits to allow us to use that ground water which keeps will continue to keep the costs down versus having to make major major investments in infrastructure and such to pull so i think are you um karbala wants to say something yeah it was just more of a general statement mr steinsnider is correct it's it's complicated right tampa bay water was created by legislative action if i if i remember correctly we are a party to a master water supply contract whereby all the member governments essentially give our rights uh you'll hear chuck use the term um unequivocal obligation to provide water which is true that's actually been a bit of a boon for us in pasco county since the water wars now we are post-water war 20 25 years later of course right um but but having that is has has been important and so uh it it's the answer is complicated know this that tampa bay water and our staffs and all the other utility staffs we meet frequently monthly sometimes even more frequently i spent probably i've had more conversations with chuck in the past probably uh than i have because we look at these issues and we we look at the same lens that you do making sure that we are trying to get the best deal for our ratepayers right um whatever our options and alternatives are under the master water supply contract that's that's what we will continue to explore um and i think we need to for for regional cooperation it's um but i understand where i understand what you're saying right and we have an option now but people are willing to give up the credits to make it happen maybe we need to take this well let me add something and i don't know if ralph wants to jump in on this but last year there was legislation that is gonna um that requires um some of these um governments to deal with their their um discharge and and i think that um and maybe i'm going to oversimplify this like i said uh tampa bay water is a left side brain thing i'm really more of a right side brain thing so i i struggle a little bit but so i do it in my english in my my simplified manner um so we have a discussion coming we've done a we've had this discussion a little bit this year but member governments are making reclaimed water reclaimed water is like a commodity and how that is dealt with in the future is the big question and that is why hillsborough is reluctant

am i right to give up their reclaimed water because they see it as a commodity and they are holding their maybe hands close to their best but um do you want to answer that one no i completely agree with you commissioner i think the the future in this state in the next five 10 15 years will be what are we going to do with reclaimed water and will that go to something we've said in the industry for 50 years as direct potable reuse and that presents some interesting challenges in the context of the master water supply contract so uh the engagements and policies of tampa bay water for this region in the future in the next five years i think are going to be of critical importance to have those discussions well that's what madam chair yep exactly what you did working with swift mud at 4g 4g right we that's what's literally what's going on there yes absolutely i mean pasco county yeah pasco county i'm very proud of what we've done in pasco county actually you heard mr mickel mention it before we are we were recognized as the one of the leaders in the district when it comes to reclaimed water reuse i would i would argue to say that pasco county has offset new water supply for tampa bay water at the cost of pasco county and developers and and our and our ratepayers to actually offset but we we we look at that as we we had reasons for doing that in the past uh quite honestly but those those are benefits that are derived and believe me those those will be discussed as part of a broader policy discussion in the future yeah we need to look well you know unfortunately only have a few months left but uh maybe we'll work on a bill yeah i wouldn't doubt that there would be things in the works i just wanted to you know follow up with mr caballo we were talking about reclaimed water connected to this project tambe water does not have any authority over reclaimed water the member governments all retain that in 1998 so this is about reclaimed water credits um so the hillsborough county is uh holding on to those in the long term is what we're talking about so otherwise you know you say that they're not going to give us the credits it's it's to reclaim water that they own and they can do with except for one exception they cannot turn that into a potable drinking water according to our our agreement our inner local agreement they have to work through tampa bay water to do that and we are looking at whether uh reclaimed water as mike was saying and i think you were saying commissioner starkey the senate bill 64 where you're you're having to deal with some of your disposal partnering with tampa bay water on a future potable water project and we will

be including that in our next update of the long-term master water plan reclaim projects we will be coming around to the members to see what they would want to do with a reclaimed project working with us they have the reclaimed water and we're the drinking water provider and we will work together to to bring up future projects using reclaimed water yep did you want to add something oh okay all right um it's going to be uh an interesting year but i i think it makes our selection for this year pretty easy chuck i don't think there'll be any big drama when we pick our next next project no i believe uh we heard that discussion yesterday the surface water treatment plant there was a lot of discussion being the next project but that'll take us through 2028 and then the next election we need water in 2033-2018 and that's where i believe reclaimed water may have a bigger role in the the next election after that yeah so and i'm really proud of tampa bay water and and this region and the way we've tackled the water i always point to it when i'm at fact meetings when they're talking about setting up new water boards in the state that i said just look at tampa bay water and look at the example that we've set here so i think i think it's really incredible the for the foresight of our uh people senator la val and others commissioner hildebrand that went before us and we'll so we'll solve it it is a successful regional solution yeah to the problem that you all know about uh the the wetlands and the lakes are devastated certain areas especially in pasco certain members had well fields up here now they gave those up in order to recover and we reduced the groundwater pumping from 158 million gallons a day back in the day to 90 million gallons a day so just just to be clear they bought you bought the well heads but you didn't buy the land but yes around the each of the wells there's about two acres that we purchase the rest of the land either generally belongs to the the district so we own the well fields ourselves um so there's no single member government still owns you know i hear pinellas and crossbar that used to be their welfare they don't own that tamper well okay they own that they own pinellas canals county owns crossbar they don't own the wellheads in crossbar correct because we have a lawsuit with them so we're aware well the permit is in tampa bay water's name german is in tampa waters name and so you know i know there's a some notion some of the members think if things go you know a different direction they want to go back to the old day um they would take their old oil fields back that's not how it would do um you now if that happened and tampei

water was dissolved there's six members that have a stake in each of the the wells by the how much water they took and that is another you know when you're paying the the the unitary rate the member is only paying the portion of water that they take so a growing area is going to be taking a higher getting a higher cost than an area that's not growing so much so uh it was well thought out by the the originators of the the contract on how would work and growth going forward all right thank you so much um and we'll see you up here again maybe next year or the year after you should i'm trying to come by every twice a year excellent you might seem to be late in the fall okay so thank you very much thanks zach all right next we have a kelly miller funk my number's here um is that right yes good morning r59 we have a time starting at 11 45 so yes okay this should be brief okay good morning commissioners kelly funk um with the pasco county administration excuse me i'm here to talk to you today about the west market area formerly known as the harbors if you remember back in 2021 the tampa bay regional planning council developed a plan for the west market the commissioners believe that someone other than just the planning department was needed to use to put all the stakeholders departments and agencies together for a workable plan of the west market area i was brought into county administration at the beginning of this year to be the conduit of the citizens and the internal team the goal is to obtain actionable items from the west market action committee so that citizens have an elevated voice and the team works in a unified way this is the west market it is consisted of 12 districts it covers over three commissioner districts as you can see we've got current population statistics from the 2020 census we go from arapeco to sunwest hill the hudson gulf view embassy river central spring elfers and then anclote east and anclote west you can see that the river districts in the embassy districts have the highest population and they did as well in 2010. however we got an increase of population of about 28 784 people so it's a lot of people on the west side it's a lot of people that we service in the county so this is citizens concerns from the west market these came from our listening sessions that i've held with the citizens and our first meeting from the wmac as you can see one of our biggest concerns is the homeless camps and the

and mostly on absentee landowner properties a lot of difficulty there getting it through with the landowner we have a lack of affordable and workforce housing we are also fighting against the slum and blight ordinances that were placed last year under sb60 which does not allow anonymous calls anymore so we have a need for pocket parks and connectivity especially to the anclote river in the elfers and the antclot east districts and a cry for quality of life improvements such as more walkable communities sidewalks lighting and safety challenges in the west market are very clear when you look at these pictures many many departments are included to solve just this issue not to mention so this picture was taken it was taken last month and this is off of state road 54. yes ma'am there are many other agencies that are also needed just to help the people who have been living on this site and i do need to interject just here too i had opportunity to travel with commissioner mariano and we toured some different types of sites ones that are actually taking over buildings now where they will go in and turn on the electricity and the water and set up shop in an absent landowner building this is just a few of the departments that i've worked with so far about 17 of the county departments and six plus major stakeholders that have come to the table already to volunteer their services a huge shout out to code enforcement and community development they have both been working tirelessly with me to try and get to some of these issues my role here as the project specialist is to facilitate the interaction of all these departments and stakeholders to create the actionable items and items and solutions to these issues so the west market action committee is comprised of volunteers that live here and work here in the west market they're community leaders of not-for-profit organizations hoas civic associations business owners mental health rail real estate department health and the sheriff's office they have to have completed or are enrolled in the pasco citizens academy we hold our meetings right now between the hudson and the centennial park libraries they are alternating on the second and fourth wednesdays of the month at three p.m they are are open to the public uh your assistants and aides have already attended a few and are encouraged to continue and i will be bringing you back a quarterly report when you're here on the west side so this is the highest cause of service right now this is what's been going on

this year when your office gets a phone call or code enforcement gets a phone call because of sb60 we can't remain anonymous anymore so it generates what's considered a code sweep so code sweeps were currently conducted earlier this year in the hudson and the ant cloud east areas and right now they're concentrating on the embassy and the elfers districts these will be where uh some of the planning department is working in the historical departments uh or the historical part of the elfers and new sidewalks and improvements and such are also happening so we set up a new map the harbors map isn't really indicative of what's happening at this time so we've changed it around a little bit it will show all 12 districts it's going to have an overlay layer of project pipeline all the roads and sidewalks the trails the blueways and the boat ramps the gopasco bus routes and capital improvement projects are coming soon they may even already be on there right now i know he's working on that yesterday so i look to you if you have any questions or direction um does anyone have any questions um i got a couple of pictures to show you too kelly this is a business matter of fact uh harry from local raps is here today um where we were over in leisure lane there's an area right on the u.s there's right on us 19 an old aaron's furniture place and take a look at this activity going on the back side of this here is this where we cut down all the trees and stuff and they're back uh this was an area but this is like this is right on us 19. this is an area up beside the local reps business that's taking over the old midas building from years ago so look at all the stuff that's right there go ahead and take the next couple pictures see more and more stuff there what is what is circled in on i can't tell a person that's a person yeah you can see its head yes um yeah that's okay um kelly yeah harry was trying to make it here for public comedy do you want him to come into the comment we wanted him to come to the microphone man no it's okay just we get the we get what you're showing so show the next picture i think tells you even more i mean i just saw the trash there so they're coming from us 19 they're going in the back not only this side here but on the other side i don't have the other pictures from leisure lane as well uh it shows where we cleaned out the backside of these lane on first aisle

they actually come in i had some pictures taken from tower drive looking across the water across scuba west and you can see all the burnt out pine trees that are there so it tells you how close to businesses uh as as well as homes that are out there where the fires were going on that the firefighters had to go out there so it's a problem of health safety going on and as everyone remembers from you know littering is illegal zoning violation is letting anyone use to camp on their property is illegal uh if you leave any unlawful solid waste it's an unlawful act use of public sewers are public sewers are required so you can't dispose of your treatment anything by the toilet accumulative debris and the opening burning is permitted is prohibited so all these violations are going on and on and on and kelly i think i thank you for coming out there taking a light taking a look at what was going on to have a little bit of perspective that you had down in holiday to see this up here um i've got an email from just a lady that called me on this when the when the fires were going on uh i just had a conversation with bird he owns a vacation lot vacant lot on first time south i mean the total lot at the very end is on bear creek he showed us help up in february although he is very concerned about the after effects of the trash left behind his bigger concern is how do we stop it how do we stop the homeless cluster between us 19 and first isle their trespassing and drug use is a great concern to him he's going to go to clean up his land once again he is a landowner feels a victim of all this how many times you clean up and post no trespassing signs and if the homeless just do it over and over again this has been going on for at least 10 years uh scott koeniger lost close to 100 000 on his fish farm due to vandalism bird showed us the era of the day to clean up berta's knowledge about the area he's hearing impaired and talking the phone is challenging he would like to speak to you if he could um if he can help and they thank us for help for all the help we're trying to do but it it is a problem that we've got to address um talking to pat phillips one thing we can do is if we do see a violation pat looked at the law that was passed senate bill 60 and it says that a commissioner can actually put a complaint in so we can go back to that scenario but again for this thing here we need to find a way to go in there get the stuff cleaned up and keep it out maybe we look at laws where if you do have violations like this we we make you remove invasive plants which make it easier from the to camp in there let them go clear out their lots uh maybe we need to go put a fencing up there if need be

but maybe sally if you want to talk to this if there's some way we can strengthen our own code team to go out and take care of these issues i mean we've got some great people on there do you have any recommendations how we can go get this cleaned up and gone all right i i do have a time certain yeah um so we may have to continue this until after lunch but he's commissioner sally sherman assistant county administrator development services please know that we are looking commissioner as you know at the laws and regulations in which we can operate under and we will continue to do that and bring more focus to you know some of the issues you brought out and some emails that were corresponding yesterday so we will continue to explore and see how we can affect a change in this area it is a great concern for all parties involved um i did want to suggest as we go through our budget and i can't recall if i brought this up in my budget meeting but we had talked about maybe a couple of code enforcement officers that were dedicated to commercial versus residential might help maybe but i don't want um kelly's work to be only you know dealing with this so this is a big issue and um so but we'll we'll talk about this more um i did see in that email that discussion um about the contract with the landowners expires every year i want to see if we can't talk with the sheriff's office about maybe getting up to three years so maybe one day we'll talk about the rental registry again and other things but kelly i'm just so glad we have this effort going you know mary helen when she was here um was working on this but it's really too big for one department um it the issue of break lifting up the west harbors is got to be a collaboration of our citizens and all the different departments that need need to be involved so um really glad for your work manager just a comment before i know what time turn quick comment i may talk about this later i may not to be on how our day goes but we talk about code enforcement you know we're not always this is my opinion we're not always using code enforcement properly and if we focus on things like this what you just saw there and using code enforcement for that versus what i consider some silly things sometimes we're using code enforcement for and having to put the sheriff's office out there in certain situations i don't think they should be in either we can obviously focus more on on issues just like this we've got to be more focused and not utilize code enforcement

or the sheriff's office in ways where that could be taken care of more internally or with staff and other departments itself the citizens are ready commissioner the citizens are ready they've stepped up and we've got a nice cross-section of people who are you know from different viewpoints you know ones that are willing to help the people who are living there and ones who are willing to eliminate the junk and debris so it's really a tremendous effort on this end thank you thank you madam chair one quick question yeah especially because scott's carrying casey doesn't make it back then for later on today which i will want to discuss is further mr steinscheider these trespass agreements uh right now they're written as a one-year contract that expires and then they have a conversation about redoing again which i think is a a waste of time it should just be something that we put it in place it stays in for no pressing no trespass agreement the only change would be if the person reconsiders and doesn't want to do it or if the property sells let them opt out afterward or just or if they sell the property obviously it stops is there a way that we as the code enforcement can go out there and do these trespass agreements without having the sheriff's involvement no okay i don't believe you can we gotta move on okay but this is uh i'm gonna break this i'm gonna bring it up later on in my committee report so if you want to hang out for that afterwards that'll be later today all right uh now we have jerome um with careersource and uh we added this on at the last minute because we wanted to make sure you're aware of an effort that's going on and the implications in my mind to pasco county so good morning good morning everyone everyone here today appreciate the time let me make sure i got this uh works right so i'm here to talk about the recheck the reimagining education and career health act that passed in june of last year by the florida legislature um that act is really to drive the improvement of the workforce development system through increased access and accountability while aligning services at the state level and local level but also potentially realigning the workforce development let's see areas i get this work there we go okay so the way the law is written there's actually two things that basically could occur uh the the law actually states that department of economic opportunity and career source florida are going to complete a waiver to the federal government asking that careersource florida

basically takes over the role of work local workforce boards so the possibility is they could create another state agency to oversee the federal dollars that would be coming here for workforce development that includes all the services obviously that career source provides everything from re-employment services cash assistance food stamps workforce investment opportunity act training funds etc so that's sort of one end of it and then in the law it states or they will reduce the number of workforce regions so in essence sort of combine combining regions what you see here in front of you is just some of the you know population statistics and some of the things have been talked about is maybe combining pasco hernando region with either pinellas and hillsborough or pinellas hillsboro or even more areas so that's about point three million people in these three regions okay um pasco has about 25 pascal has about 25 of the population and in essence what you see across sort of these larger regions of government or pseudo government is that there's sort of an equitable appointment to those boards based on population so in essence right now you know at the way we are structured you all and the hernando county commission appoint the board members appoint the people locally based on federal requirements who needs to be on the board this would mean potentially that you could have only 25 of the people on the board being appointed thus sort of diminishing your authority and your your view your vision of what should happen here in pasco county so i want to bring that to your attention um how do things sort of look now you know what is it that the state is wanting to accomplish where do they want to go and why are they doing this you know currently there are 24 workforce regions in the state of florida we are aligned directly with the community college districts and that's based on how the federal law says the federal law states that you should be aligned with education economic development and employment services which is what we oversee and they're looking to the state is they've engaged ernest and young actually they are looking to engage local stakeholders look at things such as commuter patterns and also focus on sort of an economy of scale when they look at how they could redesign the system now quick quick question mr madam chair yeah so engage local stakeholders yes sir um would that be like commissioners maybe it should be yes sir has anybody been contacted because i haven't been contacted about this about this other than that that's why i have jerome here today no no i'm i'm glad i'm i'm

delighted what you've done with your letter too we'll talk about but yeah i haven't been contacted to what uh to my feelings of anyone else's buy that no by the state and no no no and i'm on the board and i haven't been contacted either yeah so the state has enlisted ernest and young to sort of oversee this process and as you can see they have a pretty aggressive timeline actually as of ju this june 9 just a few weeks away ernest and young and career source florida are going to present to the career source florida board their preliminary findings now again they have not spoken with any county commissioners from where you're saying across the state and you all have the fiscal responsibility for those federal dollars that come in for oversight they have not spoken with education at the local level local business economic development or the citizens of the county so i have fortunately been one of three people at the local level participating in the statewide meetings um i select selected to be on the board sort of representing mid-sized regions across the state and there's been a lot of talk about systems you know there are problems with the computer systems everyone's heard of what happened with the unemployment system when the pandemic hit how it crashed there's talks about sort of streamlining services working on you know higher level communication data sharing agreements and so forth so maybe that's what they're going to talk about with their preliminary findings but we don't even really know but they're gonna have some preliminary findings without speaking with the local stakeholders yet so that should be fairly interesting uh by december they're supposed to have a decision so hopefully between now and december they have had a chance to speak with you all as well as other stakeholders locally and come up with a decision and then june that should actually say june 23 they should have an implement they should have this implement it whatever that plan may be whatever if it's a you know state's gonna take over control of everything or if they're going to combine regions or maybe they'll combine some regions not the other whatever it will may be a lot of conjecture but they'll have that ready to go and implemented by june of next year i'm sure yep one of the questions too you've got a line on economies of scale does not always mean efficiency in a conversation one thing that struck me was you operated about administrative costs about six percent but others are at 11. yes sir um according to the department of economic opportunities annual review of how all the workforce boards operate pasco hernandez workforce board operates on an overall

administrative rate of six percent um our partner areas which could possibly be combined with work at 11 to 12 percent so you know government has always been known to be efficient uh no offense to anybody especially larger larger groups larger organizations they currently are not doing that and a lot of this they have a different service delivery model than we do here one of the first things i did when i came here was i got rid of our sort of ivory tower management office and put us working in the one-stop centers they still have nice big offices on on eisenhower and other locations and there's different overhead there's different costs our board which you all appointed did not have that philosophy they said make sure the dollars go to with people in the community and the businesses so we are fairly efficient with what we do so are you done with your presentation no no ma'am but i'm hoping for i keep going you are you are done no no okay keep going and then we'll talk about it okay so um talking about you know what are they what do they want to do where they want to go hopefully they are going to want to model some of the best areas and say what are the best workforce development states in the country as you can see here virginia north carolina as rated by siteselection.com are pretty much one and two in the southeast okay now they are smaller states you know about half the population of florida currently but they have more workforce boards per capita than we do they focus very much at the local level so that's not apples to apples what about the large states texas who is traditionally looked at as one of the best if not the best workforce development state large states has 28 workforce boards they average about a million people per workforce region because they focus locally and the funny thing is florida modeled theirs after texas and now they're looking to change it however texas is still looked at sort of the pinnacle of what we should be doing um why uh frankly various reasons some may have to do with way programs were managed or mismanaged in the past but i think that's very interesting yes florida is currently third in the the southeast when it comes to that and this is an independent ranking so what are they looking at why are they where they gonna go we're not sure it seems like we're sort of already structured in the way that we should be structured um talking about maintaining that sort of local focus again staying with the smaller regions you know some of the issues and some things we look at is currently we partner and and we're supposed to be partner because we partner with economic development and

employment partner very closely we sit at the table with them when it comes to recruiting and retaining business we provide services as well as some funding now if you went to a larger model and you had competing economic development agencies and again hypothetical but if you had a board that maybe was only 25 made up of people appointed from here and you were competing maybe the project would be supported more for a different area so the resources we have to help with that would be diminished you would be sort of trying to figure out how that that would work and i thought that's a sort of a key point for what it is we do with our partners you could also look at just sort of the statistics of the workforce what does the current workforce look like and what's it going to look like what do they want currently about 38 of the workforce is gen z and millennials by 2028 not even six full years away you're looking at about 58 of the workforce fitting into that what do they value they value mobility and flexibility they value that above salary and benefits okay this is common knowledge for the workforce development and what we're looking at with the generational statistics what pasco has done and created here the live here work here play here model focuses on that the investment that you have already put towards this economy and what you're doing here stays with that model those individuals do not want to follow commuter patterns and drive an hour to an hour and a half to go get a job someplace else the only people that would benefit honestly are those businesses in other areas it does not focus on the businesses right here and the statistics show that that's where the workforce is now that's where it's going you look at things like the great resignation everyone's heard about you look at the gig economy more and more people are working remotely and the pan the pandemic escalated that really just as quickly as you can believe 2018 prior pandemic 52 of the world's workforce worked remotely at least one day a week jerome statement yeah um so commissioner moore has to leave yeah i have a budget meeting so okay sorry sorry no but it's just 12 but can i make a comment because i want a motion just quick comment i want to make the motion too um i agree 1000 with you we should not consolidate um i'll use it i'll use tbarda as an example because of the decisions made chairman starkey sits on the t-bar to board that board was diluted with the with pasco county representation um where the small person the totem pole even though they were the fastest growing county in the region you made a great comment earlier about

moffett for example you showed some other companies too we we're going to have something bigger than the west shore business district possibly bigger than um downtown tampa when it comes to the amount of jobs here in basil county we need you guys we need you to ourselves [Music] we know unfortunately what's happened recently with career source hillsborough career source pinellas we don't need to be involved in that i do not want to merge with them by any means if for some reason they think this is a good decision um why is ey in charge of this they're an accounting firm i don't know how they're involved in workforce innovation you think it brings somebody in that actually understands workforce innovation and is involved in that besides ey which i'm not knocking ey but they're they're a great popular accounting firm if they're going to audit somebody go out to pinellas and hillsborough you know not us so i'll make the motion and i will say this if for some some reason they think it's a good idea to do this i'll make a motion to pull any damn funding from it as well because we're not going to merge with them so hopefully we'll have something well that's that's if not if not we'll create our own if not we'll pull our funding and we'll create our own well we will figure it out that's federal money flowing down well then they can we'll figure it out they do need the support and technically at the the federal level that it should go through the county commission okay so okay yeah you do have some you do have a say at least at least you have a voice let me give you another example why i think this is a bad idea so we have amp skills yeah we're not approved as a what's the correct training provider we're not approved as a training provider in pinellas or um hillsborough yet because they view us as competition to their technical college which is crazy because we don't do exactly what they do we feed into their colleges but i just i just think we have such a good thing going here and i just think we'll really be harmed if we join with these other areas you know if they want to join back together um but we have greater oversight greater control in the system that we have and we shouldn't be punished because other people may have not had their eyes on the ball move forward and should we bring in the florida association of counties to help maybe oversee some of this well we can talk we'll certainly talk about it at our meeting but um so with that what i want to do is have your uh so is the motion to approve this letter yeah most improved later on i think mariano okay all in favor aye opposed all right thank you and i will sign the letter all right we'll we're adjourned we'll be back at 1 30.

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