10.06.2020 Board of County Commissioners (BCC) Meeting

um good morning everybody i'd like to call it or the hybrid virtual pascal county board of county commission meeting of october 6 2020. i'd like to remind everybody please silence our electronic devices and mute your microphones at this time we can please rise for the vacation of plaza plex oh 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 amen amen pledge allegiance under god indivisible with liberty and justice please call the roll district one commissioner oakley here district three commissioner starkey here thank you ma'am district four uh commissioner wells district five commissioner mariano here district 2 chairman moore here thank you madam clerk and mr steinstein will you please go over today's proceedings with the bcc be happy to mr chairman on march 20th 2020 governor dissent desantis issued executive order 2069 which was recently extended by executive order 2246 which suspended any florida statute that requires a quorum to be present in person or requires a local government entity to meet in a specific public place until november 1st 2020 however the board has chosen to hold the board meetings with a quorum physically present utilizing communications media technology for the public and team members to participate a detailed advertisement was ran run in the tampa bay times indicating the board's intent to conduct a hybrid virtual meeting on september 25th the governor issued executive order 2244 moving the state into phase three of the governor's safe smart step-by-step water large gatherings of over 50 people are still not recommended to congregate in a public space that does not readily allow for appropriate social distancing the state's attorney surgeon general's public health advisory is still in a place with regard to maintaining social distancing and avoiding gatherings of more of 10 or more people the public is being afforded an opportunity to make public comments either in writing or by use of communication technology that has been provided the board has adopted resolution 2182 on june 30th 2020 establishing the procedural rules for hybrid virtual meetings such as the one being held today as as with any meeting you take action you are required to make

take public comment on any proposition pursuant to section 286.01 florida statutes i'm available for any questions thank you mr steinsteiner now is the time for public comments citizens are given an opportunity to comment on any item coming before the board during the public comments section the board also takes public comment on items being placed on the future board of gender or other business on their purview due to coba 19 operation to safeguard the well-being and safety of our citizens and staff today's public comment will be handled differently first we'll take public comment from those that pre-register for our webex link and are currently on cue after afterwards we will read into the public record comments documents powerpoints or videos that have been identified by members of the public to be read out loud play at the meeting or received and filed finally we'll take public comment from those currently signed up at the kiosk station comments are not to exceed three minutes this new format does not wave the request that when you address the board comments are not directed personally at any commissioner or team member but rather directed at the issues this provides mutual respect between the board members and the public for webex and kiosk participants after stating your name and address for the clerk the timer will be activated we'll start a countdown after two minutes one people sound letting you know that only one minute remains after the time is up two beeps will sound indicating three minutes are up you should close your comments webex participants will be disconnected when their time is up and kiosk participants will be asked to move away from the kiosk madam clerk do we have anyone pre-registered to speak emails to be read into the record or received and filed this way mr chair there were four that pre-registered on the webex link none are connected into webex i do have one email to be read into record we received two okay um let's go ahead first and proceed and see if there's anybody at the kiosk there's anybody at the kiosk this morning there is nobody at the kiosk this morning with that madam clerk please read the email to the record okay email is from cindy bontrager 21 317 bowman road spring hill florida 34610 general agenda item the pasco county board of county commissioners and the pasco county administrator issued a local state of emergency due to the threat of covid and relied on florida statutes 252.38 this statute is in the context of the actions the county can take in its own effort the statute does not provide the county with the authority to

compel the community to take action the order requiring face coverings is an abuse of authority and an infringement on individual civil liberties the paso county board of county commissioners and the paso county administrator have crossed the line into an individual's personal responsibility to take precautions that an individual has the constitutional right to determine for themselves the county's actions are that of a totaltarian and a socialistic form of government the consequences for these types of actions which may be well intended not necessarily that a malevolent nature create a society that becomes dependent on government to solve all problems rather than empowering community members with information to make informed decisions that produce an educated response citizenry that can be trusted and likewise can trust one would expect elected officials in the united states of america to recognize this initially in march 2020 it was caught it was thought that covid posed a threat to the lives of many in fact the county ordinance that the ordering that the order requiring face masks covering relies on in chapter 30 defines an emergency as an occurrence or threat thereof whether accidental natural or caused by man in war or peace which results or may result in substantial injury or harm to the population or substantial damage to or loss of property since the county issued the local state of emergency on march 12 2020 the cdc has issued s has issued estimated infection fatality rates for covid the updated survival rates by age group and quoted by governor desantis are 0 to 19 99.997 percent 20 to 49 99.98 50 to 69 99.5 70 plus 94.6 additionally on september 25th 2020 governor desantis updated floridians with the following information covet hospitalizations have declined by 72 77 covet icu hospitalizations have declined 72 percent ed visits for covid like illnesses has declined by nearly 80 percent the local state of emergency signed on march 12 2020 resolved that it is expressly authorized to dissolve this local state of emergency if the event no longer posed a threat to the lives of pasco county residents clearly as of today october 5th 2020 there is no longer a threat and the local state of emergency should be dissolved for the pasco county board of county commissioners and the pasco county administrator to continue to ignore this information is an agrarious abuse of authority additionally the local state of emergency signed on march 12 2020 for florida statutes 2 252.38 is required to be extended every seven

about um taking back the permitting part of dredging right i think this is one of those channels they're probably in there so i'm good to go through with the work but you got a couple of things you know that may be going to dep or army car of engineers i don't think it'll happen within 30 days anyway right but we need to make sure we don't have them take those steps that'll make us go through more permitting than we need to that would you know keep this cost the same we could actually end up looking driving this cost way down from that permitting product and any mitigation that might have to be done under you might be able to get to a five foot depth instead of a four foot depth so i know the studies you've got to go do that's fine they're going to take the steps but just be careful not to take any steps it's going to burden us where we don't need to go we have time thank you thank you thank you so much approval second emotion the second all in favor aye aye aye i'll post it semester c38 mr wiley c38 was modified to add the attachments from the fwc grant application recommend approval full approval second motion and second all in favor aye aye opposed sam simon thank you that does it for consent we will move on to a regular agenda r1 orca lake villages p bass three four four zero good morning commissioners and caldwell public works um on july 14 2020 the bcc requested that public works bring this project to the board of county commissioners for consideration as a board initiated project next slide please um this is the orchid lake villages pvas there are 53 roads involved and there are 900 lots and over 500 956 erus the estimated project cost is 3.6 million dollars and the maximum cost for eru is 3700. this comes the amount is 674 000 dollars and the maximum cost after the discount is just over three thousand dollars three thousand and sixty nine dollars next please uh that's the extent of the project in red or pink and um we're asking for your directive as to whether or not to proceed with this as a bcc approved um initiated project thank you sir any questions any comments mr uh commissioner mariana mr chairman i've talked to several residents here from walking neighborhoods before but they're very excited about having this project done any comments questions cnn or entertainment move approval second emotion is second all in favor aye aye all opposed to the same passage

thank you moving on to old business commissioner oakley uh yes i i would thank each and every one of you are aware that on september 27th uh pasco county fire took over the services for zephyr hills and they had a meet and greet on september 28 monday morning and we went and meet the firefighters and some of them were coming over from zephyr zafrael's and some of them were already our own employees with pascal county fire so but it went over real well um everything was very smooth in the transition they've been going through training for probably a couple three months prior to to this date so but uh by the time everything came about and all the dust had settled everything those i know from city council in zephyr hills and pasco county working together all of our staff dan and the chief and all all his staff it was very smooth transition so now we get to service uh zephryos and it's gonna be better served i believe than it ever has been in its history of zephyr hills so um they led it to this point and we've taken the reins to do that and i think with uh those two stations and we're able to service our county uh residents on the east side of their fields without driving through the county to get to them or to the city to get to them to service their uh issues there with the fire services so that and the move of the station down at crystal springs up to um right across from the ballpark there on chauncey road that new location will have better service in that complete area than we've had in the past so i think everything went well and they wanted to thank you for all that all the board was responsible for and our staff thank our staff and the firefighters chief cason and his his staff for what they did so it's good it's just good news and it's a win-win for both county and the city of zephyr hills great work um i think that's all i have thank you commissioner oakley commissioner starkey yeah um i have two things i want to bring up um first i just wanted to share with you that um i attended a uh an annual event it's a manufacturing dinner for the um upper tampa bay manufacturing um group which are manufactured from hernando pascal and pinellas county and i try and go every year that's the one that gave me the award for

manufacturing friend of the year or something a few years ago but um i sponsor a scholarship kind of award for the um student apprenticeship or person of the year who's gone through uh one of our training programs and i just wanted to share with you that the other night we actually had uh two two um graduates of our boot camp were nominated and i'm i'm sorry i can't remember the story of the first one and i'm sure it was touching but the second one just brought us all to tears and the standing ovation so and i cannot remember his name but it was a gentleman who literally was uh living in the woods he was a homeless vet um some social worker uh brought him to us he went to our program he was in our first boot camp he got hired by a very good manufacturing company that's already given him a raise and you could see his picture they showed it when he graduated from our boot camp and now three to four months later um how his whole i mean he looks like a different man literally i mean it was just it was just so moving and um now has lives in a house and he said and i have a girlfriend and and his life is just off and running and the company was there who talked very highly of him and our program so i just want to thank you again for um what what we are doing for people with our we're really changing lives um helping with this workforce training so so that's one thing um so uh the other thing is that i wanted to update the board that the contamination on the gulf harbors golf course has been remediated by the sellers and run through a little little history of where we are so i think it was even before 215 because i've now been commissioner for eight years and they came to me as soon as i got elected the gulf harbors community association they came to the county and they asked for help with a solution that would get the golf course property out of third party ownership to remove the possibility of development and to have an area where the community can recreate and enjoy the property and this was because there are approximately 18 homes in gulf harbors and because of the age of the community there is no mandatory hoa with assessment authority so the community has no way to buy the golf course property the community has no solution unless the county buys the property so this board stepped up for the gulf harbors community and we got the

property under contract since the contamination on the property has now been remediated i'm asking this board to step up again to move forward and close on the property the challenge to the msbu is still pending but it doesn't change the fact that the gulf harbor community has no solution if the county does not close on the purchase i'd also remind the board that we're talking about a one-time payment of 335 dollars for each house for the purchase or sixty seven dollars for five years maintenance and capital improvements would be thirty three dollars a year this is a really fantastic solution for the gulf harbors community we need to give the staff direction today to bring a revised to bring back a revised contract at the next meeting so that this board can approve it and allow the closing to move forward while the msbu litigation is still pending the county's the county attorney's office has advised that the revised contract will continue to require fdep approval on the contamination remediation before closing this is important to the county and the community and and i'm asking for your support and i and i have um a motion that i would like to make and that is to draft a new contract to purchase the gulf harbors golf course that is not contingent upon an msbu and that allows the county to close after the de permit requirements have been completed and bring it back to the october 20th board meeting for approval and continue to pursue the msbu after closing that's my motion so i have a motion on the floor discussion commission with discussion i have a second with discussion so before we call the vote we have discussion go ahead sir um you know what one of the great opportunities that's coming up that's happened as this thing started from before this coming up now is the dredging we're going to do it down in that area as well and it could provide a better mint to use some of that area too for the spoils coming up there could be an option too for the residents to try to work on something between now and then when we get to the stage they might want to have like a boat storage type thing there where they can actually generate revenue to fund the whole thing too but i'm happy to take it down to the discussion and just kind of see where it takes us but i'm glad to see that remediation is done kind of takes the price bite away a little bit knowing we don't have any liability or any conditions so i think it's going to be a good step forward and if we look at the revenue that we actually get tax revenue for a gulf harbors area

i was just told there was a two bedroom two bath down they went for 500 000 so when you look at the value that those people create it wasn't set up with a park in the area this does create that great opportunity so thank you for bringing it thank you i mean especially with kovid and people wanting to get outside and recreate because there's not a whole lot to do you can get on your boat but it it's it's just it's just been so needed for our community so i've emotioned this i have just a question one question yes sir now does this mean this is a public uh park or is this a private park the um the plan for the community is to have the msbu um and we will we will have the the there will be a private part to the golf course community and to the property the um e-lamp is buying half of it so we're only we're only talking about you know the the other half but the e-lamp part is is can be public but they have to go make an appointment just like any other e-lamp property they can go on the e-lamp side of the of the mr area but i believe they have to have a an appointment to go in so anyway mr steinsteiner wants to clarify so it is a public park if the county is using public funds to purchase it what the commissioner is trying to indicate is that like other public assets that doesn't mean the public has the right to use it immediately so the so the e-lamp the environmentally sensitive area that e-lamp is using e-lamp money for could only be used based on the rules and regulations that the board sets up for that it's not open to the public okay miss pearson did you have something no i just couldn't hear it oh okay i understand maybe we and i apologize maybe we can just crank the mics up just a little bit for the people in the rear thank you do i have any other questions commercial real clean that's it so from my understanding is there's a mo well there is a motion on the floor with a second that um there will be an agreement brought back to the county commission on the october 20th is that correct october 20th meeting for review and a vote correct okay so i have a motion a second all in favor aye all opposed name sign motion passes is that it ma'am yeah that's it okay commissioner mariano thank you mr chairman um i want to say we've got some exciting things going on beacon woods um on beaker woods drive we've got a rotary that's almost complete mr starkey we have a rotary that's almost complete on beakers drive yeah your mic down a little bit sort of here i cannot hear in these things i

i i'm [Music] almost done it's taken its shape now we're taking the corner so that's moving along d.o.t started the light out front so the safety improvements we approved back a couple years ago are now coming to fruition and it's very exciting for all the residents there i'd like to talk about a meeting commissioner stark and i were at the vfw a little while ago um we met a gentleman by the name of danny dejesus with airborne electric and uh he's got a product and i'm not gonna go too much into detail but it works with electric motors so if you think about lift stations think about just even pool motors air conditioning motors it lets them run at 30 percent more efficiency and longer durability as well so we'll send you some details coming up but we'll have some our own staff's going to meet with them um we've now got uh some private individuals to go meet with them too to try to help them get along but commissioner stark your enthusiasm was great with them you should talk about hiring these people that are local veterans to go put them all to work at good paying jobs so working with them skills with commissioner starkey's leadership there and to what our staff can do in the business community we create a lot of jobs for a lot of veterans right here in pasco county right on the west side as well so it's going to be exciting times coming up we did meet with him uh with david engel and some of our staff and um yeah i'm excited i think there's some work that has to be done with pedc and a few others but i think it's a great opportunity um you know he mentioned that he had gone looking for property in pinellas county or said no no no he said i really want those jobs to be here in pasco so um we think we'll be able to help them but it's a it's it's very promising exciting times that's all i have sir thank you commission mariano um county ministry mr biles yes sir excuse me just a few items today one i i think commission mariano was involved in our grand opening of our shady hills route yesterday a new pcpt route that we've been working on for two three years or more about that yeah so just want to let you know about that um libraries continues to expand their offerings they now have the ability they have book club kits so if someone wants to start a book club and they have a library card they can get a book club kit from the library for free and then the last thing i mean commissioner oakley took my thunder on

the fire rescue and zephyr hill so i'll leave that at that and then last thing is i don't know if you saw but animal services went up to some of the area impacted by hurricane sally and brought some animals back to help one of the shelters up there get animals out and adopted and so that was one of the things they did over the last couple weeks so just want to tell you a couple of good things that your team's doing miss chair i'm sorry go ahead i just want to touch on route 20 for um west pasco is going to be a phenomenal route it runs up along 52 to hicks road it hits two high schools it hits the mike fasano hurricane shelter we're going by veterans park angle park uh premier healthcare is right there and then even the hospital up in county line road up in spring hill so the connections are phenomenal and the great thing about it is for the people that have trouble even the children trying to get to sports either at veterans or at 5a high school in hudson high school they're now going to be able to coordinate with pcpt to actually get transportation back and forth so some people that maybe could never get to those games are going to be able to get there in the ease of even having students use it if need be it's really a dynamic thing i want to say kathy you curt the whole team did a phenomenal job putting everything together to make all this work thinking outside the box and trying to really help the residents through so great great job on everything thank you anything else right um county attorney's office mr steinsteiner i don't have anything at this time i'm adam clerk you no we don't have enough time all right um i just wanted to let you all know that the courts have gone into phase two so jury trials will begin november 2nd and our office is working very closely with the courts and the justice partners and also county facilities to ensure the reserves can return and be in a safe atmosphere so i just wanted to let you know um andrew baxter has been doing a great job with the team thank you andrew he's been very helpful in that project so the other thing i wanted to mention is october is domestic violence awareness month and i just wanted to bring some light to the subject that hear some wonderful statistics not wonderful one in four women and one in nine men are severely physically abused by an intimate partner in the state of florida in 2019 there were a hundred and five thousand incidents reported by the floor department of law enforcement in pasco we have around

207 domestic violence cases filed per month that's about 8.6 cases per 100 000 residents and on a national level that's higher than the national average our office works very closely with sunrise of pasco and salvation army when individuals come to our office seeking help we provide them with private rooms and counselors from each of those agencies to help them get services that they need and also to file any sort of injunctions that they have so i just wanted to bring light to the topic um it is a an issue that where people suffer in silence and i just want them to know that there is something that they can do to help them get to a better day and we're here to help them thank you thank you don't come back in one sec commission we finish this it's a few items first of all mitch and what month it was it's also breast cancer awareness month i want to make sure that we obviously recognize that it is breast cancer awareness month unfortunately many of us have obviously been impacted whether it be family members or some people that are here and that are watching or people that are in the audience here live today um again you know terrible disease and we want to recognize all the people that have unfortunately had to battle that disease think about those that we've lost and you know at the same time congratulate those that have won that battle so number two um is on the agenda earlier it was uh fire prevention week the actually the fire pro this lawnmower behind me is driving me crazy the fire prevention week resolution commissioners we passed the fire prevention week resolution this morning the consent agenda fire prevention week is october 4th through october 10th and this year's theme is serve up fire safety in the kitchen you like that fun serve up fire safety in the kitchen so we urge everyone to be safe and stay alert when cooking to prevent fires in the home they will be doing social media videos all week on the county's pages with our fire rescue team they'll include safety tips so make sure you check those out our fire rescue and fire prevention teams obviously do a great job work with our citizens throughout the years to make sure everybody's prepared and knows to be safe so thanks again for our amazing fire rescue teams and the prevention team for all their hard work and thank you commissioners for passing that resolution this morning as a friendly reminder at noon sharp we will need to be out front for and um for a photo 11

30. oh well i mean if for some reason they get here 11 30 that'd be great but right now it's at noon if i'm not correct okay is that correct sir noon still we'll try guilty early yeah yeah it's i've got 11 30. okay so um yeah i'm not done we will meet um those uh our fire rescue team out front of the building at noon unless they can get here earlier so i need to make an appointment today so there's been a statute change for the year and we need to appoint a commissioner to serve on the affordable housing advisory committee the change was effective october 1st so that's why we're doing it now instead of our during the reorganization session next month staff is expecting to have a meeting soon so we need to do that what i would love to do is take volunteers for this opportunity i know affordable housing is very dear to some of our friends on the commission how often do they meet okay well commissioner mariana you already well i have a volunteer how about that oh okay all right okay all right so commissioner mariano uh oh i don't need a motion i'm gonna make that um i guess that uh appointment so commissioner mariano is now on the affordable housing advisory committee thank you sir for taking my on that opportunity um last thing i have and then we'll go move on to commissioner starkey one more time as i think we all know um congratulations to the tampa bay lightning yeah give him a round of applause they won the stanley cup last week um the lighting's also a great community partner here in pasco county as you know um there's the two hockey rinks that um they built here in our county parks they also donate to a community hero every game and a lot of these community community heroes have been pasco county residents or not-for-profits in addition wasn't that long ago where they helped co-sponsor the disabled hockey festival and that was a great event i spent a lot of time there that day they had a lot of um current and former lightning players that participated in that and um coaches and staff um and we will we really do thank them for their all their community efforts and they do so i actually if you can see here i've got uh my little puck there today and and uh actually i'm gonna stand up here and uh hit it no i'm not gonna hit it actually i'm just teasing but uh this is always in my office to uh to remember the lightning and what uh great community partners are so again congratulations to team of a lightning we are definitely excited um to be in the tampa bay area and be a be a close partner with you

guys so thanks again to them i mean it's pretty cool stuff when you think about it right you think you think these are awesome um you know you figured that two the two the two teams that were in the stanley cup finals were quote southern teams you know out of texas in florida you know 20 years ago would you ever have imagined that the cup finals would be a team from texas and a team from florida actually playing against each other that shows you how far that sport has come in the state of florida you think about all the great things happening here in paso county when it comes to ice hockey you know we've said it before i want to remind everybody again you know we had the women's olympic team that practiced here and currently right now you got junior players that are going to the colleges at nhl that are practicing there you have olympic athletes that are currently training um athletes at that facility so it's pretty pretty incredible and we're happy to be a big part of it so with that commercial our commissioner stark you said you had something yeah um two things um i added one uh i just wanted to let you all know that last week for sure it was last week we did finally close with duke on the ankle river oh good that got a little sticky there for a while but we now own that park and um we had already started you know we'd already hired someone to do a conceptual design for the park so we are moving on that rapidly as you know um we have we have some money from the um the tourism money and uh other money to go ahead and do some renovation and improve the boater access um and the use in that park and we're going to be going out um for uh those who want to bid on putting a restaurant on the water at the tip there of the park looking out over the ankle river and the gulf and i say it's going to be one of the best restaurant sites in the tampa bay area i'm very excited for it uh to see what's going to come back there you'll be able to come to the restaurant by boat or or drive in and uh i just think it's just going to be great for the community we're also planning um spaces where we can have art festivals and seafood festivals and things like that so it's going to be a a really cool park and i'm so excited and thank you duke and to our staff i know mike carbala was very involved in it and keith wiley we had lots and lots of discussions when you're dealing with duke it's um a challenge because they have so many different departments and you have to

get everyone to the table or the phone at some point and move forward and it took a little while but we're we're really excited and i hope to maybe buy some more of their land so to to to come in the future um the other thing i wanted to tell you about was our next trade event that we're holding with the um pasco economic development council and it is going to be what's called the the importance of trade um well actually that's one session i don't remember what we're calling it oh small it's a called small businesses growing global it is october 22nd and we are in your district commissioner moore we are at the uh that hotel over there on uh 56. a lot of trouble um okay i'm gonna tell you where it is here in a second well i'll look i'll get the name of that um and i'm really excited because we have a very distinguished group coming we have um juan jose sabines who's the council general of mexico we have um andreas siegel who's the council general of germany and we have rodrigo da costa fonseca who's the deputy council of brazil and then we um our one of the the opening session is going to be uh given by manny mancia who i i've known for a number of years he's a like a legend in the world an international trade he's with um deo and he handles all the international business for the state and so his title is senior vp of international trade and business development for for enterprise florida and uh we also have sandro murtaz who's with the small business administration the u.s small business administration eileen rodriguez uh with the small business development corporation dan bjerk with the u.s commercial services and joseph bell also from enterprise florida so it's free it does require registration and you can go to the pasco edc website to sign up it's from 8 to 12 october 22nd at the hyatt place tampa wesley chapel so um our purpose is to help our our local businesses learn how to deal with international trade the world is your market and we want to we want to help you learn how to grow it's amazing that we have federal agencies who will give you money to go with do a trade mission they're called gold key they'll they will go to the they have people in the different countries who will um look for your customer base and so when you go on one of these gold

key missions you they have all the meetings all set up for you and they've already vetted all these companies that are potential clients for you so you'll have a day or two packed with with meetings with potential clients and then these other agencies will help you learn how to deal with shipping and and all the all the intricacies of doing trade in another country because um it's uh it's a little complicated but but they're here your federal government your state government's here and ready to to help you make your business a success overseas so real excited about it um our last two we you know we were standing room only it's been a while since we did it so you can attend in person but there's a limited amount of seats in person or you can attend virtually but you must register so october 22nd excellent that's great well with that we are already on recess again um we plan on meeting at 12 for some reason they get here earlier well mr biles will let you know all right we are recess let me know if the mics are off [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you