5.6.25 Pasco Board of County Commissioners Meeting

[Music]

Heat. Heat. [Music]

Good morning. I'd like to call to order the Pasco County Board of County Commission 10:00 a.m. meeting of May 6, 2025. At this time, please silence all your electronic devices, that's your phones, and uh mute your microphones if you're at home. Please rise for the invocation and the pledge. Do we have someone today? Yes, we do. Good morning. Let us pray. Great and almighty God, we thank you today for this day of civic business. We ask that you will give us wisdom, peace in our communities, and compassion to uplift our issues today. Amen. Amen. Could you please state your name for the record? Yes, I was going to ask that. Chaplain Anthony Shy, Pasco County Fire Rescue. Thank you so much. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, madame clerk, can you please call the role? District one, Commissioner Oakley, here. District two, Commissioner Weightman, present. District four, Commissioner Joerger, here. District five, Commissioner Mariano, here. District 3 Chairman Starky here. Um, we're gonna switch things up a little bit this morning. We're going to go right into the resolution so our our first responders over here can get right back out because we're a busy county. So, um, you want to call up the first resolution? [Music] I do not have them. Res, uh, hospital week in Pasco County. Sorry, we weren't ready for that. Sorry. All right. Sorry about that. We were taken out of order and I wasn't aware. That was a surprise. Please come forward. Yes, please. Yes. Please step up to the podium and I'll go ahead and read the resolution. Morning. All right. Resolution number 25-210, a resolution by the board of county commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, declaring May 11th through 17, 2025 as hospital week in Pasco County. Whereas the Advent Health Conton, Advent Health Dade City, Advent Health Wesley Chapel, and Advent Health Zephr Hills teams consist of more than 3,000 physicians, nurses, and staff in Pasco County. And RAZ Advent Health delivers unparalleled consistent health care including clinical expertise in cardiology, emergency care, surgical services, obstetrics. Can you help me with this? Obstetrics. Obstetrics. Thank you. I might need some more help. So stand by. Level two NICU, neurosurgery, stroke care, long-term acute care, rehabilitation, weight loss surgery, imaging laboratory, home health, wound care, diabetes, and women's services. And whereas Advent Health has been a steadfast pillar of healthc care excellence in Pasco County, providing compassionate care, innovative treatments, and unwavering support to individuals and families in the community. and Raz Advent Health Date

City Advent Health Wesley Chav Chapel Advent Health Zephr Hills have been recognized with an A hospital safety grade from the Leaprog Group, a national nonprofit watchdog that sets standards for excellence in patient care. And whereas a core mission of the Advent Health organization is investing in the community and health care with more than 200 million last year towards charity care, coverage shortfalls, community health services, and cash in and inind contributions to other organizations. ANRAZ hospital week provides an annual opportunity for individuals and communities to express gratitude, appreciation, and support for health care professionals recognizing their tireless efforts and profound impact on the lives of others. Now therefore, be it resolved by the board of county commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, that said board hereby declares May 11th through the 17th, 2025 as hospital week in Pasco County, and ask all Pasco County citizens to join in honoring the healthc care heroes who care for the community every day. Dun and resolved in regular session with a quorum president and voting this sixth day of May, 2025. Move approval. Second. All in favor? I. Morning, Mr. Oakley. Good morning. Good morning, Mike. Good morning. Glad to see the group you've got here today. Great group. That's right. Pretty exciting hospital week. I hope that means things go smoothly and no one has any issues. So, we got great teams back at the hospital. Yeah. Uh for a lifetime I've been a part of the hospital here in Zephrios and Dade City and of course Wesley Chapel. But I can only thank you for all the care that each and every one of your nurses and doctors and all of you staff that help support all that that compassionate way you take care of our citizens of Basco County. So, uh, with that, who's going to be the spokesman? I will go ahead and do that. Yep. Thank you, Chairman, Commissioner Oakley. Uh, to the rest of the commissioners, thank you. Good morning again. My name is Mike Merurl and I serve as the president and CEO for Avan Health Zephr Hills and our Aventan Health Connor facility long-term acute care in Land of Lakes. And on behalf of this team, representatives from all of our hospitals across the county that are part of Aban Health and as you mentioned the three over 3,000 members of our team serving in this great county. Uh just appreciate the opportunity to be in front of you today and to celebrate National Hospital Week. It is the opportunity we get every year to celebrate with our teams and recognize their compassion, their excellence, and their service for our community. And so, I'd like to extend my gratitude on behalf of our team to you for recognizing that with us and uh the vital role that our hospitals play in our communities, whether they've been a part of the community for over 50 years like Dade City or or over a decade in Wesley Chapel, uh we are part of a growing community. And I think that's what's so awesome about uh our commitment and what we want to do

together in Avent Health is that we grow as a community, as we grow as a county, we are growing alongside you. And uh it is our commitment uh to innovate and expand and grow along with Pasco County. And so um as we do that, we want to bring more doctors, more facilities, more services to this county to support the growth that's going on and do that alongside you. And we are just proud to serve and and grow that infrastructure that will serve our community better and better every day. And everything we do is intended to serve the growing community of Pasco County. And so we just thank you again for your unwavering support uh for this hospital week. Our hospitals and our clinics, our physician offices, our new our new off-site ERS are more than just buildings. They're a place where people come and they need they need help and they need care at their most vulnerable time. And so I that's the thing that I love most about our teams is that at the end of the day it's people taking care of people and that's people of this county and we want to do that with compassion and love and and support and most of all keeping them safe each and every day. So thank you uh on behalf of this team and our rest of our caregivers at the hospitals. We appreciate your unwavering support and look forward to growing together in the future. Thank you so much. Thank you. Uh other board members would like to say something. Go ahead. Well, we're just um glad you're here and we it's just amazing the amount of hospitals that are moving to our county. Um so, um we we uh just appreciate all you do for our citizens and not just in Pasco County. I would imagine you have folks traveling here from some of the other counties around. Um we know of your wonderful reputation and just congratulations and thank you for all you do. Thank you, Chairman. Southrest. Yeah, guys, you know, aside from seeing Pasco as a as a as a market base for you and supplying quality care for our citizens and our visitors, just thank you for being a community partner overall. There's not a request whether it's helping the firefighters on a fishing tournament or a little league team or or you name it, you guys are there. You're not just there with monetary support, but you show up and people see a face and they realize that, hey, medical is human, too. And that goes with your human- centered approach. And u that's very much appreciated, I think, by all of us and the folks that call Pasco home. Which is your most western facility in the county? Advent Health North Panelis is probably the furthest is on is in uh Tarpon Springs. Oh, is that the old Helen Ellis? Okay. In Pasco County, it would be Connor, Lando Lakes. It's a long-term acute care facility, but Okay. North Panelis for sure. Helen. So, I of course want to say thank you guys for everything you do and I am a huge fan of your new uh urgent cares. So instead of going to the hospital, I'm able to take my kids to the Advent Health Urgent Care. So, and we've had

great success there. So, fantastic. Um, thank you. Y appreciate it. And I tell you, I I want to thank Advent Health. You guys have been such an asset to the community as we focus on quality of life. If you have your health, you have it all. If you get care, you can go. So, what you do to improve everything is is amazing. Um it was recently that uh we actually on the BBL I was with uh again we're over at uh a hospitality group called BBL with Marriott. Yes. And they actually chose you guys for the great work you do to give you guys a donation for the great work you do. So that kind of tells you that you're resonating from a lot of people from all around. Um you guys have helped out with sponsors in in great ways for the center ice. You started off with that one wire grass sports compass. I want to say that I was at a firefighters picnic, Kevin, Commissioner Stark and I were at uh last year and Ryan Quadabone was there and he put a presentation on you guys were sponsoring that for all the firefighters. Yep. And little it was literally seconds before I said look I'm doing a scolop fest. Would you like like to help out with that? You guys put us in so all the families can go and then uh it it led from taking care of the firefighters now the nurses etc. And everybody can go for free now thanks to your leadership and what you helped us do. We're expecting this year starts on July 24th. Hopefully you bring all your employees out there. Want to treat them all well. Let them have all have a good time. Um and again just thank you guys for all the great work you do. I've been a patient. I've had friends been patients and your service has been phenomenal. So thank you. Thank you. We're going to have Commissioner Oakley go down and we're going to stand here. Okay. Thank you so much. Just keep that person off the table. Sure. Thank you. Okay, he'll stand in the middle here [Music] with you. Maybe it goes I put sometimes I put them in real. [Music] Sometimes I take pictures from her. I take pictures and then I send it to sometimes. All right, everybody look right here for me. One, two, three. All right. Well, thank you so much. Yep. Thank you. Hey, what's up? How you doing? Nice to see you, too. Appreciate Madam Chair, resolution number two. Yep. All right. If you are here for the um county correctional officers and employees week, please step to the podium. County Correctional Officers and Employees Week. There you go. There you go. You all can't hide. We know what you look like. They just went around. They're not blending into the background. All right, I'll go ahead and read the resolution. Resolution number 25-207, a resolution by the board of

county commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, declaring the week of May 4th through 10th, 2025 as Pasco County Correctional Officers and Employees Week. Whereas on October 1st, 2020 2022, Pasco County assumed all duties and responsibilities of management and operations of the Pasco County Jail in Lando Lakes, Florida. Andraz the Pasco County Jail is docu is documented as the 10th largest county correctional facility in Florida due to the housing of over 1,000 offenders. Anra correctional facilities across the United States, both public and private, military and civilian, are run by highly qualified and experienced men and women with a deep understanding of the challenges and difficulties within their profession. ANRAZ correctional officers are highly trained professionals dedicated to maintaining secure correctional facilities and ensuring public safety for all communities. And whereas correctional officers and professionals serve admirably in many different capacities, including jail administrators, supervisors, officers, and support staff, and they work in very demanding and stressful conditions, facing many challenges, and put their lives at risk every day. And correctional officers and employees are responsible for the custody, care, safety, security, and reform of thousands of offenders every year, as well as the maintenance of safe and secure facilities. and rise correctional officers and employees guide, counsel, mentor, teach, train, treat, and assist in rehabilitation of offenders and provide offenders with direction, guidance, and a new focus while preparing them for community re-entry. And correctional officers and employees rise to meet any challenge faced with courage, honor, and excellence. Now therefore, be it resolved by the board of county commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, that said, board hereby proclaims the week of May 4th through 10th, 2025 as Pasco County Correctional Officers and Employees Week, and encourages the citizens of Pasco County to join in expressing appreciation for the hard work, extreme diligence, exceptional service, and uncurmountable dedication provided by the individuals who work in our community or in our county correctional facility. Done and resolved in regular session with a quorum present in voting the sixth day of May 2025. Move approval. Second. All in favor? I I don't know how to turn off my Apple Watch. It keeps ring. Oh, okay. This is Commissioner Wait. Thank you, Chery. JJ, Chief Jenkins, you know, glad y'all are here embarking on our third year as uh Pasco County's Department of Corrections and managing our jail. And um it's been quite a ride so far. Came into office. Who would have thought that we'd become one of five wardens essentially, right? And you know, thanks to you all, we've learned I've learned an incredible amount of what goes into a jail, how to manage the facility, from toothbrushes to underwear, you name it. Um, all the all the different aspects of

what you all are tasked to manage um is uh pretty pretty incredible. and the dedication to your to the force and um you know being being in the facility 247 365 and taking care of folks who have many many challenges. And uh with that I'd say remember to take care of yourself. You know you're no good to to someone if if you're not good to yourself and take care of yourself. It can be a very taxing job and career. But I'm incredibly grateful that you've chose to to do this line of work and choose to work for Pasco County. And uh very glad to have you all here today and to celebrate all the great work that you all do. So thank you JJ. Anyone else? I just want to say thank you guys for what you do. It is not easy. I don't envy your job. And also just something that I have noticed when when I'm at a firefighter pinning I always see you guys supporting our firefighters and I love that our firefighters support you all. I the relationship is just great and um again thank you Commissioner Oakley. Yep. Uh JJ and all all of you and all your staff members because I know all of you aren't here so somebody had to work. So, but the fact of it is is the work you've done here in Pesco County in the last starting of the third year has been greatly received by our community and you're doing a great job. We appreciate each and everything and it's not always easy to do, but you're doing the right thing and we're getting uh set up for the new expansion coming on board pretty soon. So, we look forward to u y'all having better facilities to do a better job for the citizens of Pasco County. We appreciate everything you do. Thank you. I just like to say thank you for the great work. You guys have the toughest people to deal with, the toughest clientele going on and what you have to do every day, trying to do all the right things and keep yourself safe, which is the most important. We don't want anybody to be getting hurt and thank you for all the great work you do. Mr. Carella, I'll just pile on. The accolades are are obviously all the same, but I I will focus on the fact that as an organization, what you do, the culture and the tight-knitness of of how you do it is what's impressive to me probably the most. You are the high highest you you have the highest engagement of of any department in in county government. And I think that's a great sign that your leadership uh is great there, Chief, as well as your team and how you guys interact as people. and and I think that it's it's phenomenal that you can run a facility and run it the way that you do and have an amazing team that is highly engaged along the way. So, I thank you for that. Okay. And uh why don't you guys line up here? Commissioner Waitman got it down there. We'll stay behind the remarks. Oh, I'm sorry. Just got past the galler. You're doing good. Please. I'll be I'll be very brief, Commissioner so we can get the picture taken very very quickly. Um, so I do want to thank uh the chair and the board for recognition of

correction officer appreciation week along with the um correctional support staff. So together um we all do run a very professional organization. We just had our Florida Model Jail standards inspection last week where we have other agencies come in and they inspect us and I can tell you they found absolutely nothing wrong with the uh facility operations, the physical plant, all of our documentation. So, it's really a testament to the work that everybody does up here. And um like I said, we have um our civilian staff here. We have the most senior member of member of the organization. and we have one of our brand new members that just graduated the academy here. So, um, we're going to continue to bring people on, continue to rep represent you all well, but I do appreciate all of your support. Thank you so much. Okay, JJ, I should have taken the chief up on our offer to speak first because I was going to bring up the inspection. So, uh, no, when when Mike talks about the engagement, the culture that the chief and the leadership team have built here, uh, that's why people don't leave. if they get offers to take $20,000 to go somewhere else, they stay right here in Pasco County. So, I think it's a testament to the support we received from the commissioners, from uh Mike and the staff, and the transition was, you know, maybe not as smooth as would you would say ideal, they made it ideal. They made it work, and we'll continue. And this summer, we get to open the the the first phase of the three-phase expansion. And uh we're looking forward to that. And thank you again for all your support for public safety. All right. Thank you. Can't wait for the picture. [Laughter] Come [Laughter] here. $1,000 check. I can't I have no idea who it's to. I'm sorry I couldn't be here to say good words, but I gave them to you last week. Okay. P no R four three. If you're here for travel and tourism week, please step up to the podium. All right. Where where in the world is Consuelo today? She's in Tulsa again. Wait till you see the mountain bike uh BMX place in Tulsa. Right. I'll go ahead and read the resolution. Resolution number 25-205. a resolution by the board of county commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, declaring the week of May 4th through 10th, 2025 as travel and tourism week in Pasco County. Whereas National Travel and Tourism Week established by a congressional resolution in 1983 is an annual tradition during the month of May during which the United States travel community celebrates the value travel holds for our economy, businesses, and personal well-being. ANRAZ tourism in Florida's is Florida's top economic driver. Awareness of the tourism industry integral part industry's integral part in Florida's economic success will encourage promotion of tourism activities and continue to

increase the number of visitors to the state and to Pasco County. ANRAZ Florida Sports Coast, Pasco County's destinations management organization, works hard year round with industry partners to promote great reasons for visitors to come to Pasco County for sports, leisure, and business activities. Andraz in fiscal year 2024 visitors to Pasco County had an economic impact of $985 million including over $675 million in direct spending by approximately $1.5 million visitors visitors spending in 2024 saved each Pasco household $349 in state and local taxes. And in fiscal year 2024, the tourism industry supported 10,440 jobs in Pasco County, generating 34,000 200. This is a going to be a fun number. 34,2,300 in wages and salaries. Thank you for that exact number. Thank you for reading it. Andraz on May 22nd, 2025, Florida Sports Coast was se uh will celebrate travel and tourism week by hosting their fifth annual tourism banquet and awards recognizing those who take a leading role in the tourism industry in Pasco County with a keynote speech from former National Football League coach Tony Dunie. Hello. Now therefore, be it resolved by the board of county commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, that said board hereby proclaims May 4th through 10th, 2025 as tourism, no, as travel and tourism week in Pasco County and urges all Pasco residents, Pasco County residents to recognize the importance of this vital industry to our area. Done and resolved in regular session with a quorum present and voting the sixth day of May, 2025. Move approval. Second. All in favor? Hi. Well, what what a few weeks you've had with all the fun stuff going in the legislature. Yes, ma'am. Um, but we we we have such wonderful numbers and I just want to thank the whole team for um all the hard work you do and so proud of our county and all the great things we have to offer and you know some of the places I haven't been to yet. I have can't wait to take my my grandchildren to feed those giraffes. So, um lots going on with travel and tourism and Why don't you speak to the Thank you, Madam Chair. Adam Thomas, executive director of Florida Sports Coast in Pasco County. Um, I'm here today with uh with the Florida Sports Coast team and and some members from our our tourist development council, but uh uh we can't do what we do without the support of our team and the TDC and more importantly of the board of county commissioners. So, first of all, thank you for your support and the supporting our industry, not only here uh locally in Pasco County, but statewide. Um, speaking about the legislature, um, you know, travel and tourism are are major factors when when driving the Florida economy, generating billions of dollars in revenue, supporting millions of jobs, and contributing significantly to the state and local tax revenue. It's considered that the state's leading industry and a significant source of

economic stimulus. So, some examples of that are some local businesses. Tourism supports a wide range of local businesses from restaurants and hotels to shops and attractions. Infrastructure Tourism spends spendings contributes to the funding of essential infrastructure projects such as roads and transportation. Community development tourism tourism can help promote community development by creating jobs, attracting investment, and improving quality of life for residents. So in essence, tourism is a powerful engine for Florida and Pasco County's economy, driving revenue, creating jobs, and supporting comm community communities across this great county. So thank you so much for supporting us and sponsoring this resolution, uh, Chairman Sari. And I just thank you so much. And let um, what is the date of the tourism banquet? The May 22nd at Saddle Brook Resort. And do we still have some tickets left? We do. Yes, ma'am. You can. So And if people want to join us and listen to Coach Dunie, how do they get some tickets? Well, it's not Chuck Norris, but it is it is Coach Dunie. So, next year, who said Chuck Norris? Ne next next year, we we might have an opportunity. Um, but yes, you can go online. Um, you can go on our website and um our events page on our website and uh and purchase tickets that way or just reach out to us and we'll we'll guide you. And do we have that drone show again since we don't have the drone show? We have something else. Missed it last. We have some other things that are supplementing the drone show that's going to be more entertaining. Really? Yes. I have to say that's my favorite event. pretty high, so I can't wait for the sheriff. Um, anyone else have any comments? Yeah, Mr. We'll start with Commissioner. I certainly appreciate everything you've done and and your team stepping up and and taking charge and doing what you've done for the citizen of Pasco County. It's been going very well and certainly appreciate each and every one of you what you do for the citizens of Pasco County. Thank you, Commissioner Wakeman. You okay, Jack? Thank you, chair. I'm working my way. Yeah, I'm good. Obviously, everybody coming coming to Pasco and entertainment's a thing now. And, you know, thanks for making keeping Pasco fun and thinking innovatively and and not just from, you know, Pascal and his team at Vanberg Tennis, but over to Jack's area at Sunwest and all the different sports parks, Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus. I mean, there are options for Pasco and we're on the map and uh y'all do exciting and fun work for us and um I know it can be a little daunting going all the different places that you have to go, but somebody's got to do it. It's it's tiring. It is. Somebody's got to do it and um you know, just grateful for for putting us on the map and and showing us in a positive light and uh next year I'm I'm really looking forward to Chuck coming to town. And uh so no no pressure there. Yes,

sir. And Commissioner Mariana, uh I'd like to say Adam, you've done a phenomenal job since coming on board here. Um your willingness to just go after the market using technology as well has been incredible. Um I think the relationship you're building is great. um such as like BBL with Bobby, I mean just phenomenal just keeping them in and keep everybody in the loop when when you have done such a great local job great job with the local businesses as well. All those daily things that go on that we sponsored like Chesco Fiesta, the the Kumquad Festival, all those things matter because when people are here, they get something to do. It makes them want to come back and that's why the numbers have got stronger and stronger as we go. So, as much as we're doing great there, the other things we're doing to expand it out is going to bring even more more tourism and makes a great impact. As your uh study is going to show, it's saves the taxpayers here. I think figured this year $384 a year and what they would normally pay for taxes is now sponsored by people coming in from out of town having a good time. And I will tell you like with the Chesco Fiesta, it's like my family's vacation where I bring them all down. We had like 12 family members come down this year just to celebrate that week and whatever. But I'm sure around area whether it be tennis, paddle, whatever, people get people people love to have things to do when they get here. Absolutely. And you're helping make that happen, which wasn't always a focus before. There was struggles with that. So, you're doing that. It's going great. So, thank you. Can I add something? You know, I'm down here. You're the chair on the microphone. For the last Yeah, I am the chair. Um, for the last few years, we have auctioned off um a scalloping on our boat at for different 501c3s. This year we donated to the Amskills and you know it goes for thousands of dollars. So uh we use that as a a great money raiser for our charities. And then um I had a dinner party Saturday and we served the Pasco County's official pie. Nice. The frozen kamqua pie. Not one person there had ever had it and they were just blown away. So um I want to make sure we get that into Saddlebrook. have suggested that they put that on their menus for their banquetss uh when uh they have businesses and conventions. So, um we're very proud of our official kumquat pie. All right, let's take a photo. Oh, she did. We have a lot. [Applause] Go ahead and start. Okay. So, resolution number four. Let's see. If you're here for paint the town blue week, please step up to the podium. All right. Hello. I'll go ahead and read the resolution. Resolution number 25- uh 209, a resolution by the board of county commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, declaring May 11th through 17th, 2025 as Paint the Town Blue Week in Pasco County. Whereas the week of May

11th through the 17th, 2025 is recognized across the United States as National Police Week, a time dedicated to honoring the service and sacrifice of law enforcement officers who uh safeguard our communities. And law enforcement officers serve with unwavering commitment and courage, accepting the risks and responsibilities that come with protecting lives, property, and freedoms of the public. And whereas all federal, state, and local police officers, sheriffs, and other law enforcement officers across the United States served with valor, dignity, and integrity, and for generations, brave men and women throughout Pasco County have answered the call to serve and protect our communities. Our law enforcement officers embody the encourage and honor to represent the best of Pasco County. And in moments of danger and desperation, the first people who turn we turn to are law enforcement officers. These often unsung heroes risk their lives so that we can live in peace and security. And RAZ, the FBI Tampa Citizens Academy Alumni Association, a nonprofit organization committed to community engagement and public safety awareness, has created the Paint the Town Blue campaign as a tribute to law enforcement officers nationwide. And Raz's campaign invites communities to participate by lighting homes and businesses in blue, wearing blue attire, and sharing supportive messages on social media as visible symbols of appreciation and solidarity. And RAZ, the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners proudly supports this initiative and the um outstanding contributions of our local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. Now therefore, be it resolved by the board of county commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, that said, board hereby proclaims the week of May 11th through 17, 2025 as paint the town blue week in Pasco County and encourages all residents to join in this observ observance by participating in campaign activities and publicly expressing their appreciation for the dedication and bravery of law enforcement officers. done and resolved in regular session with a quorum present and voting the sixth day of May 2025. Move approval second. All in favor? I Good morning. Morning. And uh and is this the first time we've done this one or we've done paint the town? No, this is the first one from Pasco County. Yeah, that's I know we've done it with other other organizations, but not this one. So, good morning and tell us a little bit more about your involvement in all of this. Good morning. My name is Jacim. the president of the FBI Tampa Citizen Academy Alumni Association. With me is uh James Nicole who actually was the gentleman behind this whole project about 5 years ago when it wasn't in favor to support the blue and also with me is board of directors Thomas King. um few years ago when everybody else in the nation was uh going after the police, defunding the police, we decided to actually go in another direction

which is supporting the police. So we've asked all the um commercial partners any federal, state, local to change their light bulbs to blue uh in observance of police week. And then we started working with uh local and uh state governments to change their lights like the courouses and the bridges and we were able to do that. This is our fifth year uh with this recognition and I'm a Pasco County resident and this means a lot to me coming from the board of commissioners. So thank you for the uh resolution. Thank you for recognizing us. I also want to recognize Bill Cronin who's also a part of this. Um anyone else want to say? So, I want to ask my county administrator, are we making this building blue? Uh, we would hope so, Mr. Rebella. We are. Yes, we are. Oh, that's wonderful. Thank you. All right. Um, any anybody else have any comments? I do. Go ahead, Commissioner Joerger. Um, one, as a daughter of law enforcement, thank you guys for everything. And um speaking of the light bulb, I live in um downtown the city of Newport Richie. So they do change the light bulb under the bridge. So when you go under the bridge, it lights up. Thank you. So everyone everyone listening today, if you have the opportunity, go out and support your uh your law enforcement by putting a blue light somewhere in your home or business. Commissioner May, I'd like to thank a gentleman for taking the stand and pushing this idea forward. I think it's so important for to let our law enforcement know that they're appreciated. The first responders, they've been through a lot of tough years with a lot of stuff that's going on. I think there's a definite change in the nation now. And thank you guys for leading the way here in Pasco. Thank you. Okay, Commissioner Waitman, then we're all going to go down because there's just And thank you guys for making the trek over today. your uh work doesn't go unnoticed and um you know when uh country was going one direction, I'm glad you guys went another and that means a lot here. I'm I'm fairly confident to say that this board supports our city police departments, our sheriff's office, our corrections, and uh we work very diligently to figure out a way to fund the organizations appropriately and support the officers that are in the field. And um we're just grateful that you all are here and doing the work on the other side of the das to support the men and women who support us day in and day out every day. So thank you. Thank you. We're all going back. All right, Thank you so much. [Applause] Okay. Okay, res five is going to be um the uh international firefighters day. So, here we go. It's a It's a busy week. It is busy month. All right, I'll go ahead and read the resolution. Resolution number 25-206, a resolution by the board of county commissioners of Pasco County,

Florida, declaring the declaring May 4th, 2025 as International Firefighters Day in Pasco County. Whereas, in recognition of our firefighters, International Firefighters Day honors the sacrifices made by past and present firefighters to ensure the community is as safe as possible. And whereas International Firefighters Day began in 1999 when Lieutenant JJ Edmonson sent out to honor five firefighters from the Gree Gilong, is that correct? West Fire Brigade of Australia who lost their lives while fighting a fire on December 2nd, 1998 and an and is observed on May 4th because that is the feast day for St. Florian who is considered the patron saint for firefighters. And whereas the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation recognizes the week of May 3rd through 4th, 2025 as the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend and created the light uh the light the night for fallen firefighters which encourages fire departments, families, and businesses to turn their porch lights red to honor and remember those firefighters who have lost their lives in the line of duty. ANRA International Firefighters Day aims to raise public awareness about the invaluable role the firefighters play in protecting lives and property and to serve as a solemn reminder of the dangers, increased health risks and sacrifices they make and the toll their profession takes on their physical and mental well-being. And whereas International Firefighters Day is a worldwide day to recognize, express appreciation, and salute the men and women of the fire service for their incredible dedication to public service, their bravery in keeping us safe and protecting our properties, communities, natural preserves and wildernesses. And as we reflect on their heroism, show our gratitude and thank them for their extraordinary commitment, exceptional courage, and selfless duty. and offer our support to those firefighters on the front lines every day. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the board of county commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, that said board hereby proclaims May 4th, 2025 as International Firefighters Day in Pasco County and recognizes the citizens of Pasco County to join in expressing appreciation for the hard work, extreme diligence, exceptional service, and dedication provided by the individuals who work in Pasco County Fire Rescue. done and resolved in regular session with a quorum present and voting the sixth day of May 2025. Approve. Second. All in favor? I. Commissioner Joerger. All right. Well, thank you and I am honored to present this resolution to you all. Um, thank you for your commitment and your courage uh providing our residents in Pasco County. Um, not only are you guys firefighters, but you're also first responders. You're the first one on the scene of an accident. I I can't imagine the things that you guys see and perform on on a daily basis. And you know, hearing this, I I it can't help me remind me of when um JJ gave out the Warrior award with

the lady who was in distress with the two children and had nowhere to go. She was scared on the run, didn't have car seats, and she ran to the ran to the fire station. So, the fire station, you know, is just a symbol of of safety and hope. And um I just thank you guys for for risking your lives every day. And um in Pasco County, we're proud that we're investing in your your health and safety and thank you for everything you do for our citizens. You guys are absolutely amazing and we're so grateful and thankful to have you. Oh, and of course my son is in the cadet program. So, um I'm very proud of him as well. And he really looks up to you guys. If I tell him I ran into a firefighter, who is it, Mom? What station are they at? Yeah, we're JJ Ryan Chief U. I can't thank you enough for all that you do and all your staff and members of the fire department all do throughout our county and certainly appreciate all you do that uh leads to safe saving lives and also taking care of our citizens so they will be out of harm's way. So, thank you very much, Commissioner Whitman. Yeah, thank you. Well, you guys, I don't know how you handle the stress. You worry about taking care of everybody else all day long. and you all have families and loved ones you got to care for also. And uh again, like said with the corrections, take care of yourselves. It's important. If you don't take care of yourselves, you can't take care of us. And we need you. And uh you know, you guys choose this profession and and love love doing the job day in and day out. Not just when you're on duty, but see the guys in the back there. They're probably off duty and they're still here and and doing all different community engagement events throughout our county and out of county to promote the job at hand and in our our department here in Pasco. So, thank you for your love and dedication of your job, our county, our folks, our businesses, and um just incredibly grateful for all you do for us. So, glad you're here today. Commissioner Marian, I like to say you guys are just a top class. Um, the organization, especially over the years, has just grown to be such a professional organization. The work you do is incredible. I know that people appreciate it. The surveys show it over and over again. The people we talk to uh show that. And I think you can see with the board that, you know, making sure you have the right equipment, making sure you have the right place to live while you're working and you're away from your families. Uh, I think the new schedule is going to be something that's going to great take the stress off you at the same time. Um, improve your quality of life. the care that we want to take of you guys to make sure you're healthy, not only for mental health, but the physical health. I think it shows with the station we're putting in place and all all the stuff we do. And I'll tell you, you got a great team of leaders, but you guys are doing a great job on the ground, and that makes such a difference to this county. So,

thank you for all your great service. We appreciate it. And by the way, I do have two lampost. I think I got a red one. I'll have a blue one now for the week. And our county administrator wants to say some words. Yes. Actually, I I just uh again grateful for the service that you provide. Having grown up in this environment, I I understand what you do day in and day out. I will say that uh I'm also proud I'm very proud of this agency and what you guys have accomplished. Pasco County's reputation is first rate in the state, if not in the nation, but it's because of you and uh you you should take great pride in that because I certainly do. And we're just grateful for the relationship that we have both administration, the union, rank and file. It's it's been fantastic. So, thank you all for that. and and I would just echo all the comments here. Um JJ, wonderful job. We're so glad we have this new occupition and chief, congratulations on all the fine work you're doing. And I always say there's not a time when I'm out on the road that I don't pass one of you guys heading off to an emergency. And there was a fire truck this morning. I think it was on Curly or Prospect heading somewhere um this morning. So, I think we're the busiest fire department in the state. Is that correct? There was a tractor trailer turned over on I75 this morning. Oh, well, um, no doubt. Um, we value your service and love the good relationship we have with all of you and are just so grateful that you have chosen your professions to take care of all of us. So, with that, Commissioner Joerger, that's Chief want to say something. Chief Oh, yeah. Go ahead, Chief. Sure. just like to say, you know, we value your support. We thank you very much for it all. This is Battalion Chief Victor Tasaro, Captain James Mohler. These are the crews that are here just down the road that are here serving the public in this area right here. These are the ones that are doing the hard work. These are the ones that are out there making a difference and they're the ones that are making this organization as great as they are, just like the Mr. Carbala said. So, um, you know, this is a day of remembrance as well. I just like to remind the commission that, you know, two years ago, we lost Jason Tucker to a line of duty death. And this weekend we had a representation up at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial where he was memorialized very very respectfully and and welld deserved. So I just wanted to bring that back to attention. Thank you very much. Um Commissioner JD, did you Okay, sorry. Just real quick, I want to thank uh the commissioners for your support on the mental health initiatives. We have our mental health for first responders. That program is being copied. We used it when there was an area uh county who had a tragic loss. We used our services uh and they utilized our services. We're being copied. Uh we've been asked to go around the country and and frankly outside of our country to help uh model that program. And the same thing with Dshift.

If you uh and and Mike has heard this from from his family members in Tampa, everyone's trying to figure out how to copy Pasco County with the Mayor Casters asked me on one of our um economic development trips said, "How did you do that?" I just wish the public knew the phone calls that we've had over the years, whether it's on equipment, Dshift, mental health, the advocacy, the advocacy you guys have had and shown to this fire department and and the corrections. I'm I'm lucky. I say I have the best job because I had public safety, but it helps these guys on the ground do their job because we're providing the best equipment and the support. So, I just want to say thank you. All right. And thank you to Raider and the other dogs in the fire department. Um, picture. How will we do this one? Okay, we'll stay up. Commissioner, um, you do that one and then as soon as we're done with this, please start reading number six. She'll still be walking up when we start reading. Don't give a time. Go ahead, [Laughter] Commissioner. All right, [Applause] everybody. Oh, we got one more. We're going to go ahead and start reading it. Lisa, keep moving. Okay, so resolution number six, if you are here for older Americans Month in Pasco County, if you could please step up to the podium. All right. Resolution number 25-208, a resolution by the board of county commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, declaring the month of May 2025 as older Americans month in Pasco County. Whereas May is a time for us to recognize and honor Pasco County and the area agency on aging of Pasco Penllis older adults and their immense influence on every facet of American society and through their wealth of life experiences and wisdom. Older adults guide our younger generations and carry forward abundant cultural and historical knowledge. ANRA older Americans are a vital part of Pasco County's demographic makeup, contributing their time, wisdom, and experience to the community. ANRAZ every citizen in Pasco County should strive to recognize, understand, and address the evolving needs of older adults. ANRA older Americans improve our communities through intergenerational relationships, community service, civic engagement, and many other activities. And whereas communities benefit when people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds can participate in and live independently. And whereas Pasco County and the area agency on aging of Pasco Penelis must ensure that older Americans have the resources and support needed to stay involved in their communities, reflecting our commitment to inclusivity and connectedness. Andraz the 2025 theme of older Americans Month is flip the script on aging which seeks to transform how society perceives talks about and approaches aging encouraging individuals and communities to challenge stereotypes

and dispel misconceptions about older adults. And Ras Pasco County and the area agency on aging of Pasco Penellis urges all Pasco County citizens to recognize the contributions of old of our older adults and to join in promoting programs and activities that foster connection, inclusion, and support for older adults. Now therefore, be it resolved by the board of county commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, that said, board hereby declares the month of May 2025 as older Americans month in Pasco County, done and resolved in regular session with a quorum present and voting the 6th day of May 2025. Move approval. Second. All in favor? I. Commissioner Jerger. All right. Well, I am honored to bring this resolution to you all. one, not only because I'm on the board of area of aging, but also because um I don't know, some of you may know, my grandfather lived to be 104, just shy of his 105th birthday. So, as a little girl, I would just sit there and ask him about things from his childhood. And um he would tell me these fascinating stories, things I could not even even remember. And um whenever I see an older person, I mean, that's that's history walking around. there's so much knowledge and information in in that person and I, you know, I try to encourage people to sit and just have a conversation with them with and tap into that wealth of knowledge and I'm I'm super proud to be on the board to work with you guys and everything you do for our seniors. Um, I encourage people to go visit a senior center, get involved because the look on their face when you come see them. They are so thankful. They hug you, they clap, they're just they're they're almost forgotten sometimes, and it's it's very um heartbreaking. So, thank you for being a light in their lives. Thank you for everything you guys do and and recognizing them. So, Chris Mariano, thank you. Uh thank you all for your service uh in in aging. Uh our seniors are just they need the help. Uh they love the help. I mean we had a ribbon cutting yesterday with Gracie's food Gracie's food pantry and the the look of happiness all them being together but getting that little bit of extra help for food makes a difference. Whatever you guys are doing for your services is making their lives better. So thank you for all that. Commissioner Oakley thank you all for all you do for our seniors. I I take particular notice when they talk about seniors anymore and um fact of it is uh they talk about veterans and seniors. I perked up. So the fact of it is y'all do a great job for our seniors and you're the life link for a lot of them. They have no one else. So what you do for them, they're very very grateful for for that. And I'm I'm sure you they're very thankful when the driver or whoever comes by to drop off meals or whatever they're doing for them, they're very grateful for that. That reach out of Pasco County and Pasco and Pine House has worked out a great deal service a lot of seniors in our area. So, thank you very much,

Commissioner W. Thank y Pearson, Miss Wter, Mr. Coven, thank you guys for choosing this line of work. Folks age, they become more delicate and they're not sure what to do, what to do next. Um, and just glad you're there to help them help them figure out their this current phase of life. We're all going to be there one day. And I'd be remiss if I didn't remind everybody that Pasco County passed a senior tax exemption, $50,000 additional homestead exemption for folks. And this is what the first year that it's going to go into effect. So, uh, please call the property appraisers's office. He has a whole team ready to help help our seniors save some money, stay in their homes, and, uh, please take, please take advantage of Pasco's new senior tax exemption. Proud of the work that the board did to pass that tax exemption to help save our seniors some money, and um, hope that the program is widely successful. So, thank you all for being here today. And um I would echo all the words of my commissioners and also add that we have our first senior well I don't know if it's our first but we have a new senior housing project going up um by a company called Dominium behind Southgate Publix which will um offer very safe affordable housing for our seniors. I think it's at 60% AMI. So um I think there's 300 and something units in there, right? Y uh you want to say something? Yeah. Yeah. I just wanted to I just wanted to add on to it that you guys are honestly at the heart of our county mission of serving our community to create a better future. So, I can't think of anything more fitting when I when I guys brought some new people on board at the new hire orientation and I just thank them because you guys are really doing the hard work on that tip of the spear with the most vulnerable in our society and our seniors have given so much to to care for us. So, it's only right that the society would care for them. So, just thank you for committing your your careers uh to doing that. As Commissioner Wman says, we're all going to be there. So, yep. And and um as those of us really saw it on the west side with Hurricane Helen, uh how many of our vulnerable senior citizens were impacted? It was heartbreaking. Um and um just so we're just glad we have an agency like yours that can step in and help. So, thank you very much. Commissioner Jagger, you want to go down? Yep. And we'll stand up here. I just just want to say a couple of things. I can't thank Pasco County enough for their amazing partnership. Um Kathy Pearson, Brian Hoben, Tom Sne, Josephine Benson, and the entire team that's not here. We couldn't do it without you. Um everything that you've said is true. We want Pasco County to be the best place for seniors to live, and so far you're living up to it. So, thank you very, very much. Um we are, however, in a crisis situation with potential budget cuts coming as of October 1st. We need to use all of your spheres of influence to help us ensure that the federal government continues to provide for our most vulnerable and only the

most vulnerable. Um potential cuts to your transportation program that we fund, complete elimination to the utility program, um decrease funding for meals. Um, now is the time for us to work together to ensure that these seniors continue to get the services that they need in Pasco County and in the state of Florida and throughout our country. I do want to end on a high note though because I'm super excited that we're going to be partnering on our senior affordable housing project. We're closing in on a location. Um, and because of Congressman Billis and the support of Pasco County, we too will be building senior affordable housing in collaboration with the county. We think it's going to be a legacy project and we're really looking forward to that. Thank you all very much. Thank you. All right, you go down. We'll stay up. Hey, stand over there by Thank you. Okay. Um, now is the time, uh, we're going to take public comment. And should we run through consent real fast? Nope. The county attorney said we have to do public comment before consent. So, um, let me get my little script here. I do with it. Buried it. I don't know where you are. Okay. Um, so now's the time for public comment. Citizens are given an opportunity to comment on any current 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 who are here in person and then we will take public comment from those who have pre-registered for a WebEx link and are currently on quue. We request that when you address the board, comments are not directed personally against a commissioner or a team member, but rather directed at the issues. This provides mutual respect between board members and the public. Um, after stating your name and address for the clerk, a threeminut timer will be activated and a green light will show on the podium. After two minutes, a yellow light will indicate you have one minute left. And when your time is up, a red light will be displayed. Three beeps will sound and you should close your comments. WebEx participants will be disconnected automatically when their time is up. And Madame Clerk, can you uh read the first name, please? Sure. Um, yes, Madam Chair, I'm going to go read the first three so you know the lineup. So, when one person's done, just come right on up. So, we have Alexandra Lewis, followed by Candace Alieri, followed by Mike Mark Alfieri. Miss Lewis, state your name and address for the record, then you can begin. Alexandra Lewis, 7841 Abby Brookke Circle in Wesley Chapel, Florida. I also have documents. Move to receive file. Second. Second. All in favor? I They can hand them over. There. See what I say? We are busy. You may begin. Thank you. I'm here today as a resident of Efferson, a homeowner, a neighbor, and a

mother of three active boys who spend their afternoons riding bikes, catching lizards, and playing soccer right in our streets. Can you push that microphone up just a little bit? Thank you. Absolutely. We've created a safe community where we all know and look out for each other, and you're going to hear from several of us today, all dressed in blue. I'm speaking on behalf of families like mine who are terrified about the plan to have Abby Brook Circle as a a part of Eper Ranch 2 CDD as a sole entrance and exit to the Elon Road JK2 town home development part of Eper North CDD. As such, I submit a copy of resolution 2025-06 declaring objection to change of roadway configuration for formal school parcel along with a petition and signatures from residents of Abby Brook Circle and Lily Arbor Way. the two impacted streets by this change, which are documents one through three and what you're being handed right now. We understand growth is coming to Pasco County and we welcome it, but growth must be smart, consistent, and respectful to the current community. Abby Brooks is narrow, and not designed for heavy traffic. It's also where our children play because we've turned to the our streets into makeshift playgrounds since we're the only CDD without a park. Despite there being three parks originally planned in Ranch 2, two of which were supposed to be on Abby Brook Circle, which is the last document in your packet. What's troubling about this plan is it breaks the development pattern established throughout Eperson's connected city design. Parson Hill Boulevard connects to Sanders Tree Loop via golf cart path. Bowerb Circle connects to Blue Passing Loop, Rolling Stone Trail, Biscane Lagoon, and Avon Dive also via golf cart path. Other subdivisions off Efferson Boulevard and Overpass follow similar connection patterns. Meanwhile, several neighborhoods are not connected at all. Sentosa Apartments, Welling Blade Loop, and Rockfleet Drive to name a few off of Curly remain unconnected. The precedent is clear. Residential roads are not used to connect subdivisions. So why should Abby Brooks be the exception? Routing all traffic from this development through our street would endanger our children and erode the character of our neighborhood. This is not a protest of the development itself, but taking a stand for our children's safety, consistency of connectivity, and preserving our way of life. There's a simple and reasonable solution. Turn the planned emergency exit on Elum Road into the sole entrance and exit into this development. Connect Abby Brooks via golf cart path only, just like the planned connection from Ender Hills Road on the other side of the development. This approach honors the existing design of Eper, respects our neighborhood, and ensures safe and responsible growth. So today, I ask you to reconsider this plan. Respect the president. Respect the people. Work with us, not around us. Our children deserve safe places to play.

Our residents deserve peace of mind. And our community deserves to be heard. Thank you for your time and for listening to the voices of the community that you serve. Madam Chairman, yes. Since you have a fair amount of people that are signed up for this, um this has already gotten through the process. Um it appears based on the information I was given by planning the site plan PDP CP was approved administratively September 20th of 2024. Uh the only action that is uh pending on this project is the final subdivision plat uh which would come to you as a ministerial action um that you cannot make changes to unless it's inconsistent with your land development code. If Senate Bill 784 is signed by the governor, u it won't even come to you. It'll be handled administratively. Um the plat the plat. Um could you So could you explain to the folks here what that means when something is approved administratively? Well, it it a final subdivision plaque based on the case law in the state of Florida is a ministerial act as long as it complies with chapter 177 and your subdivision regulations and its prior approvals, it must be approved. Um so the only way that the changes that the residents are seeking uh can be made is if the developer um ch asks for a change in the plan. Um so I would recommend that their CDD and contact the developer and see if they can work something out. But at this point you you're legally bound to approve it if it comes before you. And as I said, I based on the timing, I don't know that this one will even come to you. So I, you know, I appreciate that you're all here today. Um, and you're certainly welcome to have your voices heard, but there but we there is nothing that comes in front of us on this that we have have an ability to stop or change by law. So just want to make sure you understand that. Right. Am I saying that right? That's correct. Yeah, it's um you know just philosophically for all the board members these are the reasons why I always say that neighborhoods need to have connect they have to have multiple connections um to avoid um issues like this and and so I'm disappointed that there's not another one here but there is nothing we can do about it so we just wanted you to know Madam Chair. Yeah. Just for just for clarity. So Mr. County Attorney, so this decision though made administratively has already been made. Yes. And once it's been made, you can't change it. Otherwise, you're going to be the Yeah. The board's action was some the last board action that the that would would have been before the board was the uh connected city MPUD. When you approved that, it had provisions in it that allowed them to change this use from school to something else. If the school board didn't want the site, they then applied for site plan approval when the school board rejected the site in 22. They got that

approval. So they have all their approvals up till up to platt and that you it's not platt is no longer a discretionary action for the board of county commissioners. Just to re certify all the decisions that were made have been made and can't be changed. That's correct. Unless the developer wishes to come in and modified. If um if there had been a school there as was originally uh envisioned, wouldn't that school have been required to connect to Elim, you'll have to you'd have to ask that's my issue here. I mean, I would never have let that school happen without the connection to to the um so um but but that's that has changed and my understanding is is the land that's in front of this program this this parcel has already been sold and is under construction. So there is no possible way to connect to Elim. There is I'm sorry am I able to speak? Well, this is it's unusual for us to uh we normally don't take comment, but there's so many of you and I understand your angst. Um well, um I don't let me ask board what you guys want me to do. What do what do you want to do? They have the right to speak. The fact of it is nothing they say here today to us will change what's coming forward. Yeah, that's our challenge. Um did her buzzer go off? No. Okay, you can ask your question real quick. So respectfully, there is currently a emergency exit on Elim to that the construction workers are using. There is not currently an access point off of Abby Brook Circle. It's not been paved. It's not final. Um we also believe there's a flaw in the original paperwork that was filed. The town home development is not part of Ranch 2 as Abby Brooks is. We are completely separate CDD. There's no interlocal agreement between the two CDDs to use our roadways. uh CDD is a public road, but I don't know what is there anything we can do about that. If there is a flaw in the administrative approval, staff needs to needs to look at that. But as I said that it's not going to come before the board. Okay. But we'll dig into that one. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. Can we have uh this lady, maybe the others meet with David Allen and let's go look at this issue. If there is a flaw, let's go try to get it corrected. Um, David is right back here. So, he is our assistant county administrator in charge of development. So, David, where would you meet with folks to go into more depth here? Because we're not going to get into a conversation with any other speaker. Downstairs is a the big room that's there. There is a conference room downstairs. I don't know how many folks are here. I don't either, but we'll So, if you want to go down and speak with our gentleman who's in charge of development, this is your opportunity um to go down Is that for everyone or they can speak? You anyone can speak but I'm we're not going to answer and there's nothing we can do unless you find that flaw. So got a long list. We

have a lot of people here and um again there's I'll go through the list. So if you want to if you want to have an opportunity to speak more go with go with David downstairs. All right. Next. Next. All right. We have Candace Alfieri followed by Mark Alfieri followed by Danielle Povvic. Good morning. My name is Candace Alieri. I live at 7736 Abby Book Circle. I also have moved to receive file second. All in favor? I Good morning, commissioners. My name is Candace Alieri and I too live on Happy Brook Circle. I'd like to express my concerns for the JK2 town homes to use Abby Brook Circle as their main entrance. I'm extremely worried for the safety of our children on Abby Brook Circle and Lily Arbor Way. Epson 2 does not have any parks and that is why our children play in the streets. We are a small neighborhood community that feels a family. At any given moment, you'll hear children's voices, laughter, and see them playing. This street is special. It echoes a street from the past before screens and Tik Tok. The JK2 town homes is 186 units with 406 parking spaces. Our small residential street cannot handle this extra volume of traffic. I have two hearing impaired children that would be extremely affected by the additional car traffic on our street. Opening small, quiet street to 400 more cars a day threatens the safe and calm environment my hearing impaired children rely on. Hearing impaired children cannot localize sound and cannot hear which direction cars are coming from. This increased traffic will put their safety and well-being at serious risk. In the last week of advocating for Abbey Brook Circle, I continue to hear, "It's too late. We are in the final stages." You may be wondering where we've all been. I'd like to explain. We heard that our street was being used as the main entrance and showed up on October 3rd, 2024 to the CDD board meeting. We asked Mike Lawson, director of operations for Metro and our CDD board member if our street would be used. He replied, "No, Abby Brook Circle would not be used." Mr. Lawson said that the project manager was working with the county to do a revision plan. Lawson also stated that this revision would not be denied and the developer had changed it already. We trusted Mike Lawson's word as a member of our CDD board and a metro employee. Recently, we learned what was happening on May 1st, 2025. Many neighbors showed up to our CDD board to express our concerns. Interestingly enough, Mike Lawson was there and he admitted that if this was his street, he'd be upset. Also, commissioners, I ask you to see Abby Brook Circle, not just as a route for cars, but as a lifeline for our children who depend on their quiet neighborhood street for their safety, connection, play, and joy. Please let compassion guide your decision. Use the entrance off of Elim that is already existing right now as the main entrance and keep our children

safe. Sure. Yeah. Okay. So, you're not allowed to clap in here. And we're going to uh what what is it that you're wondering? Cuz I'm going to try and keep this movie. If there's truly hearing impaired, please folks, if there's if what she says correct, if there's a hearing impaired kids on there, is it the county's responsibility to put up notice on the street or is it the CDDs? I'd have to see who the ownership of the road is, but I'm sure we can figure that out. CDD road and it would be the CD. Madam Chair, um, yes. And while we're talking, can you put up a map of uh Abby Book Circle on Google Earth, please? Commissioner Mariano. Yeah, I think this map right here is the best one. The name. It shows you the Abbey Road entryway. Well, that's I'm wondering what Swift Wind is. Swift Wind Drive. All right, so let's if you would just put up that picture. Let's get going. Oh, okay. And we have some time certain that we're going to have to get to after this next. All right. The p the picture shows the where the parcel is, where Elam roads right in front of it. It's supposed to go into every road circle. I don't know why it would get approved to go through every road circle. Makes no sense to me. Um Oh, if you take a look, so you got Epson Road on the right where they're trying to connect and run that thing through. It makes no sense to me. But their main entrance should be in and out right Elon. I don't know why that wasn't done and how this how how this was done that way. I don't even know why they would even want you know Metro would want to go that way. I I don't get it either, but I don't know what what we can do. Um and that's what our staff's going to have to dig into. Yeah. So, folks, I I can tell you we're going to have our staff take a look at it. We're going to try to find a way to make this fixed. It's not going to be a quick fix. It's not easy fix, but I think we all see your point. I mean, what is even the construction entrance here? So, all right. Um, we cannot take for those for those of you that are here at for time certain, we cannot take them before public comment. We stop at 12. Um, I apologize, but we're going to try and get through this as fast as we can. But if you're here for this issue, we are going to look into it. So you all don't need to come up and speak. If you have a different something different that you want to add to the story, feel free. But other than that, you know, if you can let us do our business, we'll we'll call you up. You'll have the opportunity to say I agree with him or you can we can say I can have everyone stand up who's in support of us looking at to see what we can do. Uh we've got all your information. We can let you know what we find. So I'll start with that but go ahead. So can I can I speak? You can speak. Anyone can speak. I'm just trying to keep the move. I have some documents

as well. Can I hand them? I'll take a motion. Move. Second. All in favor? I similar but different. My name is Mark Alfury. Um I live at 7736 Happy Brook Circle. Um, so I can go ahead and you may start. Yes. Thank you. Um, I appreciate the opportunity to speak before you today regarding the proposed access route for the new 186 unit JK2 town home development project. Um, I understand the importance of new housing in our community. However, I must express my serious concerns about the current plan to use Abby Brook Circle as primary thoroughfare for this large development. Our street was designed as a quiet residential road, not as a arterial connector. The homes along our street were purchased with the understanding that this would remain a calm, safe environment for our children. Uh many families have young children and they chose to live here because of the low traffic volume and the safety it provides. The addition of potentially 300 plus vehicles making multiple daily trips would transform the character and safety of our street. Each housing gen each housing unit generates between 8 to 10 vehicle trips per day for a 186 unit development. That's approximately 1,500 to,800 additional vehicle movements daily on a street that was never designed for such volume. Children in our neighborhood regularly play in their front yards. This dramatic increase in traffic presents a genuine safety hazard for these children. The original plans for Abby Brook Circle had two entry points from Eper Boulevard. The final build had us reduced to one entry point. There's no longer capacity to support two communities going through Abbyrook Circle. Um the new development, there's a solution, you know, a simple logical alternative. Uh the new development could instead use the main access point off of Elon Road. Um, this is already designed for higher traffic volumes, can accommodate proper turning lanes and traffic signals, and would provide more direct access for the JK2 town home residents and uh to access major thoroughares. Um, and this would also not endanger the established residential community. While accommodating growth, we should be thoughtful with respect to existing communities. The Elon Road access would better serve both the new residents and those of us who already call this neighborhood home. Um, I also want to highlight, and it's already been talked about briefly, but um, a flaw in this project. We believe, um, Everbrook Circle belongs to the Eper 2 CDD. Um, the JK2 town home project trying to use our road belongs to Eper North CDD. As a resident of the Eper 2 CDD, I'm concerned about this another CDD using our road for their main entrance. These roads are funded by our residents and the increased traffic would unfairly burden the community with safety issues and maintenance costs. Um I respectfully request that the I know you said you can't do it, but can you somebody speaks to the developer and require them to revise their plans to utilize Elon Road as a main access point

instead of routing the traffic through uh Abby Brook Circle? It just makes sense as you all can see. It makes sense. So I hope I hope something can be done. Thank you. Thank you. Does the next speaker have anything different to say? Go ahead, call them up. Danielle Povich, followed by Todd Wigan, followed by Andrea Manf Freddy. Um, there's a little bit of repetitiveness, but I will try to skip through that. I have some statistics that I wanted to bring. Name. Uh, nope. We have to have a motion first. Motion. Second. All in favor? I. should be up here. Okay. Do I go and start? Good morning, commissioners. My name is Danielle Povich. I live at 7792 Abbey Brook Circle in Wesley Chapel. Um shall I just tell you when to go to the next slide? Okay. Um slide two, please. Um why we're here. Construction has already begun on the 86 town homes nearby our community. The current plan, as you know, directs all their traffic through our small residential street. Our street is narrow, lined with homes, and constantly active with our children riding bikes, walking to school bus stops, and simply playing outside. We're here to stop the unsafe decision and hopefully route this traffic, not route this traffic through our family neighborhood. Next slide, please. Um, as you know, Abbeby Brook Street is 120 homes and was designed for low volume neighborhood traffic, not the main access point for a high density development. According to national traffic standards, each town home was expected to generate about 8.2 vehicle trips per day. Multiply that by 186 units and you get 1500 vehicle trips daily added directly to our residential road. It's not a minor inconvenience. It's a major public safety threat, especially for the children who walk, bike, or wait for the bus here every day. Um, next slide, please. Um, this is just some statistics. Florida's pedestrian um, Florida's children pedestrian risk is among the highest. According to the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration, Florida is one of the most dangerous states in the county for pedestrians, and children are among our most vulnerable. More than,900 children are involved in pedestrian crashes in Florida every year. And most of these accidents happen in residential areas such as our own um after during school, sorry, after school hours. Children between the ages of five and 14 are especially at risk. The exact age that's playing on Abby Brook Circle. It's not about an inconvenience. This is real danger. Um next slide. These are local incidences. Um, just in the past year, multiple children have been hit by vehicles on residential streets right here in Pasco County. In April 2023, a 2-year-old boy and a teenage girl were struck in two separate incidences um both on neighborhood roads where families should feel safe. Then in October, a six-year-old boy was struck while trick-or-treating in Trinity, a

heartbreaking reminder that even joyful community traditions can turn tragic when traffic volumes are too high. Those are our children, by the way, on Abby Brooks. Um, these aren't rare or isolated cases. They're part of a growing pattern. I actually cut it down due to time. They're happening on streets just like ours. As traffic increases, so does the risk, especially for the children who walk, play, and ride bikes in our neighborhoods. We are asking you to please help us intervene before our street becomes the site of the next avoidable tragedy. Um, y'all heard about the safer solution, so I'll skip through that a little bit. Um, but I I'm not sure I heard the said there is over a thousand feet of available space directly in um in front of the planned town homes. Elam is much longer than that, but just referring to the town home section. Is that the right we're just asking you for uh do what's reasonable evidence safe. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Does uh is there anyone else who wishes we've got a long list and and we we hear your concerns. They're repetitive, but we'll go through the list, but if you have hopefully you have something different to add. That's all I'm asking. So, I've got Do you want me to go through the list? Okay. So, we've got Todd Wiggins, followed by Andrea Manfred, followed by Edgar Perez. You can line up behind her. Thank you. Appreciate that. Um, my name is Andrea Man Freddy. I live in 7820 Aybrook Circle or also known as 31747 Swift Wind Drive Wesley Chap. So in the original proof we have heard of our neighborhood how we're all concerned about our safety. In that approval in September of last year, it was the proof that the street was going to end up as an Abby Brooks circle or Abby Brooks in general. My address got changed three months ago. Three months ago, I got a letter in the mail that said you're now you are swift green drive. Um, and just go to the post office and they'll fix it for you. Go to the DMV, they'll do it for you. Uh, call to all the people that you need to call and they'll do it for you. Turns out they're not going to do it for you. At first when I went to the DMV, they had no idea what that was. They said, "Oh, you live in Texas." And I was like, "No, I live in Wesley Chapel." Because there's the same address in Texas with the same number, same street name that goes to Texas. I asked my friends to send me letters. I haven't got one. I order packages. I haven't got any of that. So, I'm going back to using my 782 here at Abby Brook Circle because it doesn't exist, right? Not I think yesterday I checked it. It wasn't coming up and my Apple ID doesn't come up. does is not a real address. Now, if this is the issue, then there is a flaw in the original request. If there's a flaw in the original request, then we could try to revisit it. Like, it's not it's not that we're just going to ignore the fact that somebody just changed my address and now I have to take out time

off by my day to fix all of this. I got two addresses. Well, do I call my lawyer and I tell him, "Oh, my will needs to go back to this address." and then go back and forth to another one. It really is is so inconsiderate and inconvenience to me. Now, we're adding the cars, we're adding the safety, but if this is the flaw that we're going to look into it for the uh whatever they submitted in September, then let it be it because it is labeled as the plan says Abby Brooks and mine my address was not changed to Abby Brooks. It was changed to Taylor, not Taylor Swift Drive. I see it on I see it online here as you have both addresses on the on the on your house. So 7820 and 31747. So we've been dealing with issues with the postmaster for a number of years now. The postmaster is headquartered in Zephr Hills. Um, so I recommend that if any of you are having challenges with your mail or your mailboxes, go to the Zephr Hills Post Office. That's where the postmaster for our our area works uh for the entire area. And uh talk talk with them. You're you're not alone with No, they gave me they're the ones that gave me a letter. I mean, I went up to them because they knocked on my door. They gave me a letter, but I don't know because the person next to me that his address also changed, he didn't get a letter. I got one. They skipped him completely. So regardless of what's happening, if that whether my address changed or not, it's fine if it not needs to be swift drift whatever drive. Like it's not about that. This is a United States Postal Service issue, a federal issue. Unfortunately, anything with mail is out of our county attorney wants to address this. So, but we have to be careful getting into this dialogue. So, so this would be independent from the approval of the plan. This this would have had to have come through the the GIS department for duplicative names or something like that and there would have to have been a resolution adopted or it would have had to have been part the plat would have had to have changed the name. Uh this is independent from the action that's go there. There there's another issue going on here with the with with the renaming of the of this. Can she meet with David? Can he help her? Well, he post office. We just would I'm I'm going to have the the team look into this because I see several addresses different physical address. One's a one lives in Brandon, but the rest are literally in the same area. So, okay. Okay. We will look into that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Hold on just a second. I want to make sure that the record is correctly reflected. Um, Mr. Todd Wigan had stood and stated from the audience that he doesn't wish to speak. So, I just want to make sure the record is clear because I have a written record that he wants to speak. So, I just want to make sure that that was Yeah. And he said he's not speaking because his points have been made. So, we appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. So, I'm going to call up next Dixon Phillips

followed by Edgar Perez followed by Chamilleia Verbe. It's a different issue. Yes, ma'am. Are any of the other ones with you signed up to speak? So, no matter stand behind. Okay. Thank you. These are firefighters. Yes, ma'am. For the record, Dixon Phillips, my address is protected. Uh here representing Passer County, Professional Firefighters, IFF Local 4420. Good morning, commissioners. May is mental health awareness month, and in the fire service, it's a reminder of something we've come to understand all too well. That some of the biggest risks that we face aren't just out on the street. We know the inherent risks that come with working structure fires, vehicle accidents on the on the highway, and violent calls like the recent tragedy in Kansas City where a firefighter paramedic was killed. But we also face the silent threats. Heart attacks, strokes, cancer, and something that's been ignored far too long. Mental health. Our members show up to work every shift knowing that it could be their last. But what many don't expect is how the job creeps in over time. The calls that you don't forget, the images that stay with you. Sometimes you don't even know what's happening until something random. a smell, a sound, or driving through a certain intersection that pulls you right back to that call that you've had nightmares about. That is when you realize this job doesn't just break our bodies. It breaks our minds, too. The United States Fire Administration says about 100 firefighters take their lives each year. The CDC tells us that we're three times more likely to suffer from PTSD than the general public. It's not just the one big traumatic call that made the evening news. It's 30 years of those calls that have been bottled up and finally come out. And the worst part is that we've been trained to push through it. We don't always see the signs in ourselves or even in each other until it's too late. But Pasco County decided to do something about it, to be proactive. We've built one of the strongest support systems in the country. Our peer support team has more than 60 trained members. We have a contract with Tampa Bay Psychology that gives our members unlimited visits at no cost to the employee. And we're currently transitioning to a four shift schedule that gives our members the mental and the physical rest that they need. And when someone's struggling, the support that we get from our assistant county administrator JJ Murphy and HR director Barbara Henman to get them to the IFFF center of excellence is second to none. Paso County has stepped up to the challenge and it hasn't gone unnoticed. I'm standing here today on behalf of more than 850 members to say thank you to this board, to County Administrator Mike Carbala, Assistant County Administrator JJ Murphy, HR Director Barbara Hintman, Fire Chief Ryan Gwyn, Health and Safety Chief JJ Martinez, Personnel Chief Joey

approval. Okay. Second. All in favor? I. Thank you. Moving on. Rez. Rez. Which one are we? R35. R35. R35. This is the clerk's issue. The clerk's item. Yeah, it's not an issue. Not an issue. It's an item. That was time certain at 11. So, coming up to the podium um is Sean Ganon. He's the institutional sales and relationship manager with uh PFM November 31, which is our um our agency that helps us with our investments. And then we also have my uh director of our financial uh services department, Matt Lazar. Thank you. Hi, good morning and and thank you for bidding me here. I appreciate it. Um I am here as the relationship manager for your account for um from PFM Asset Management. We manage the operating funds uh short-term cash for the county. Uh so I'm going to give a brief market update. Two slides here. Handed it back to Matt. Um, but you could progress to the next slide. Do I have a clicker? Thank you. Um, so I'll be pretty pretty brief here. I'm not going to read off the slide, but ultimately um, well again what we do is manage the investments in short-term fixed income. So, uh, what we're looking at is safety of principal first, preservation of capital, uh, liquidity, and then yield as our primary drivers of of management. So when we think about the markets today, uh as you can imagine, they're in a very uncertain and volatile time uh with a lot of changes that come rapidly and and uh unexpectedly. So uh ultimately uh what we're looking at now here is the impact of tariffs and what the Federal Reserve is going to do. Um because what they do uh often directly impacts your portfolio uh the investment returns and liquidity. Um so the Fed is meeting today uh their first first day of the two-day meeting uh today and then tomorrow they should have a decision on if they're going to move interest rates or not. Uh ultimately that will again have a a pretty direct impact on you all whether we see uh you know the investment income match what was budgeted uh planned out for um and ultimately what we expect there. uh you know we're going to talk a little bit about the portfolio in a couple slides but just to show the yield curve here uh we have seen a a uh de decline over the month uh the months of the first quarter uh that was very favorable for returns in your portfolio again for fixed income generates positive performance when rates fall. Um so we had a pretty strong quarter of of performance there. Um, I know we're kind of a tight agenda, so I'll pause for any market update questions before handing it back to Matt. I don't think there are any. You can proceed. Right. You're way too tall for me. I have to look at that. All right. So, we'll go even quicker through this here. But what you're seeing on this slide, this is taking what Sean just talked about and now this is your portfolio specific to Pasco County that uh my team

that the clerk's office manages. The total portfolio for the county currently stands at $2.1 billion with a B. Um what you're seeing on this slide is deemed unrestricted. And what we're talking about unrestricted is not tied to a bond issuance or a debt covenant. So on here uh what you're going to see in the top left that is the diver diversification of the county's portfolio. So as you can see we are not too heavy in one investment pool or one investment type. What that allows us to do is especially when we have conversations with excuse me with Sean and our other uh investment advisors is it allows us to be both reactive which you need to be able to do right in a in a uncertain market as well as be proactive and predictive. So that really allows us to do that with the way we've set up the funding sources. Going further down on the slide, you will see about 70% of the unrestricted portfolio is in short-term investments, which is anything under a year. Uh currently, if you look to the far right, that ranges anywhere from 25 days all the way up to just under three months. Um what we're finding is that second line on the slide there, the Florida Palm Term is very favorable for the county. uh that is the putting in a certain balance for a guaranteed amount of time guaranteeing a certain percentage return. We're seeing with all that we have invested about a 5% return which is well above um the benchmarks that we're seeing that we compare to on a quarterly basis. Moving down even further, you'll see those are our long-term investments and those are anything a year and above. Right now, we're trying to find that good balance of short versus long-term. We don't want to go too far into the long term and lock ourselves into unfavorable rates, but we also don't want to stay shortterm for too long and lose out on the benefit of the, you know, having a longer out on the yield. Um, with that, I will talk more just briefly uh before I go to the last slide I'm going to talk about is overall for the portfolio for the fiscal year, the county has seen an influx of $38 million in interest income earned through the efforts of my team. uh we anticipate uh that at least increasing uh by another 16 million and that would just be attributed to that Florida Palm term line that you're seeing there. So all in all looking like we're going to have another good year here. Uh it's been very easy for me to have these discussions with you because we're talking about positive numbers. So uh we'll hope to keep it that way. Any questions before I go to the next slide? I have I have a question. Sure. Um do you want to ask one first? I just I just give a comment. uh these are tremendous returns compared to what we've seen last year for previous years. You guys have moved it up gradually all the way through and you're really doing a phenomenal job. So, thank you for that. Thank you. Um my question is to the county administrator. When when we earn this interest, what where does it go and how do we spend it? So, we do account for this uh for a certain level of returns into our budget. I believe it

goes into general revenue. It's part of your general fund depending on which fund earns the interest. Of course, it goes back into that, but we we do make accounting for for these earnings when we do plan budgets. Eric, if there's anything else to add, and I know Amy is here, if you wanted more detail than that, well, is was that a quarterly amount? What was that amount that you the 30 that's for the first two quarters of this fiscal year? So, 38 million. Mhm. So, do you did you budget 38 million or you what did you budget for? I'm just looking for money to do things. Could be bond funds. There's this This is unrestricted. This is unrestricted. Yeah, exactly. They could be utilities or solid waste dollars. They they go back to their fund. So in the aggregate 38 million. Wait a minute. Wait. Why would why would this money go to utilities when that's an enterprise fund if it was utilities money? Oh, depending on the silo that earns the interest. Depends on where where the money is going, right? What fund it comes out of. What fund it comes out of. So, well, board members, do we want to see that quarterly just have a little I don't know. I just it's like money that we don't really see what happens to kind of thoughts. We submit um well he sees it but we don't see it. I'm just saying I could show you all of it if you'd like to see it. Well, I think we would like to see it. That's part of our responsibility. I think Mr. Carbell, if you need anything from our office, we're happy to help you. Okay, you can go next. Okay. All right. If I click the right button here. There we go. All right. So right now I was talking about being reactive to market uncertainty but also have being able to predict uh my crystal ball isn't as crystal clear as it usually is. So what we like to do on this sector analysis is we like to make sure we are not only aligning with Florida statute which talks about you know safety of principle liquidity and obviously maximizing return but also in the investment policy that the county adopted and what we're seeing here in the gray bars that is the restriction limit per the investment policy shaded in blue is where we currently sit overall. Um what you're seeing is we're well below all the limits which is amazing um because what it allows us to do it allows us to be free to make decisions which are best for the taxpayers and for the county. So we really like to see those blue bars be as low as possible. Um it it really allows us to make great decisions which uh you know as Commissioner Mariano stated we're able to see those returns accelerate. We're able to make very very great decisions and collaborating with the board makes it much easier as well. So, um, with that, I will stop for any other questions before I give it back to I I I want to say also, great job, especially with what's been going on in my retirement fund account. So, um, good job. Do you want us to manage that? Yeah. Well, state of Florida's managing it, but um, okay. Um, if it's okay with you all, I'd like

to skip to the last page here. Sure, I'm okay. Second last page. Um just to talk about returns for for the the portfolio that we manage. Um as you saw on the previous slide, uh Matt mentioned that there are a lot of uh liquidity vehicles that you use. This is kind of the the maximize return component. You know, once safety and liquidity have been achieved, uh we you know, we manage an additional longer duration portfolio for you. Uh and just look at the past quarter uh 1.6% return on a a the one quarter, right? So over a 3-month period, uh, you know, very favorable returns just because of the the dramatic movement downward in interest rates. Um, over the past year, uh, 5.67% return, uh, for for this this piece of the portfolio. Um, so very strong returns for for this portion. Uh, as Matt mentioned, um, you know, 38 million over the past uh, six months, just over this past quarter, you know, this this sleeve made about 30% of it returned, you know, 7 million. Um, so very very good numbers, very strong returns uh that we've seen. Much nicer than than the negative numbers when interest rates are rising, but um ultimately it's in a in a pretty good spot. I just wanted to clarify, Mr. Ganon. Yes. So the 7.4 in the quarter return is is would be in addition to the portfolio that um Mr. Lazar is managing. So it's it's it's additional. That's more. Oh, so this is also unrestricted revenue that but we we have um we have some money that my office manages for the county and then we utilize uh PFM to do other investments go out longer term than our than our office does. Yes. Thank you. So I wanted to make sure you understood that it's additional. Okay. Thank you. Um and the last slide here is just of that longer duration portfolio just looking at the acrual based earnings. So different way to kind of account for them not taking into account market value movements. Um but ultimately I know press for time so I'll pause there uh and see if you guys have any questions about the portfolio, the returns, the markets, anything like that. Any questions? No. Great job. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Now we're going to take up the other uh time certain time certain R36 R36. Good morning. Carrie Roberts, purchasing director for the county. We're here today to discuss the protest for um the bid protest denial by the county administrator for Smart Communications with the award to inmate Calling Solutions LLC RFPLK25026 for the inmate tablet program and off-site mailing system. There's no funding required here. So the basics of the protest is that we had put out an RFP for an inmate mailing system and we had four submissions. We had inmate calling solutions and ICI inmate communications, securest technologies and smart communications. After we did the ranking um we had inmate calling solutions as the top ranked performer and smart communications was the number two. We

held evaluation committees. Um once we issued the notice of intentional award, we did get a protest from Smart Communications. And the basis for the protest is that they do not feel that um inmate calling solutions will be doing all of the work themselves. They said that they believe that they would be outsourcing a portion of the work. So we got together with the county attorney's office and contacted Smart Communications and verified through a signed notorized affidavit that they are doing all of the work themselves. So today we are here because smart communications has asked us to bring this before you. Any questions for me? We have presentations from both smart communications and inmate calling solutions. Um I have no questions. I've met with you and got the lowdown on this. Yes, ma'am. All right, let's let's you need to listen. We have we have to Yeah, we have a presentation coming 10 minutes on each side. Yes, ma'am. That's why I was trying to move on the morning. Got it. So unaware of that. Yeah. Okay. All right. Uh, good morning everyone. Appreciate your time. Uh, I've been here for two hours now. I see that you're engaged and passionate uh, accounting with a lot of pride. Um, however, the integrity of your procurement um, is in question. And if the bid award to IC Solution stands, yes, go ahead. I'm sorry. I was waiting for your intro. We need your name and address and who you represent, please. I apologize. Uh, my name is John Logan. I'm the owner and founder of Smart Communications. Uh we are a Tampa Bay based inmate communication uh provider. We employ 180 people here in the Tampa Bay area. This is Guy Meller who is the regional director that would be over the implementation of services at your facility. Thank you very much and proceed. Thank you. Um I put a PowerPoint together to prove the facts because that's all that really matters here is is the rules, the requirements, and the facts. So, I'm going to run through this real quick and try and make this as least painful as possible. Um, this is an inmate tablet and mail program RFP. So, if you look, IC Solutions has zero experience actually giving tablet and mail services themselves. I know this because we partnered with them in the past to provide the services. They're a phone company. They're providing these services through third parties. They have done that historically and they have never provided any of these services themselves. In fact, if you look the requirements of the service is a single web-based administrative platform. That means a single platform to operate the tablet and mail system and it says no subcontracting will be accepted or allowed. If you look at the experience requirements, you double down on this because five years experiments experience requirements is required for these services and it says pro proposer shall provide a list. Well, IC solutions only provided three references. Even though they have over

200 customers, they only provided three references. However, all three references, they're not the provider of tablets and they're not the provider of mail services. None of them. Colin County, Texas. Reference number one. If you look on Colin College's website, it says the mail service is provided by Text Behind. That's a Maryland company. That is not IC Solutions. If you look at the tablets at Colin County, Texas, they're provided by GTL. If you notice the Getting Out app, if you go to Getting Out app, takes you to GTL's website. That's reference number one. If you go to reference number two, you have Mcome County, Michigan. If you look, it says the services provided inmate telephone system, video visitation system, inmate tablets. However, tablets are provided by GTL, not IC solutions. There is no mail service at this account. There is no mail service. And yet, it's a reference for mail services. If you go to their third and final reference again, inmate telephone system, video visitation, inmate tablets. That's Teri County, California. No mail service. You see the mail goes directly to the agency. Tablets are provided by GTL. Right on GTL's website. Tablets provided by GTL, not IC Solutions. All three references intentionally misled Pasco County to believe that these somehow represent IC Solutions products and instead they represent subcontractors. All three do not meet the mandatory 5-year requirements as a single platform and as services not subcontracted to an outside vendor. If you look even on IC solutions own website, they say we are a core business is inmate telephones. We provide through our trusted corrections industry partners other services. All other services besides inmate phones is provided by companies like text behind and GTL. IC solutions has never done these services ever anywhere. And if you look, IC solutions response to a proposal just a year ago said text behind is our mail service provider. Well, they're supposed to have 5 years of experience and yet just last year they were Yuma County RFP. They responded text behind processes their mail. If you look at text behind's website, text behind acknowledged that they partner with IC solutions for mail services. If you go to the proposal that IC solutions submitted to you, their own screenshots show Tech Friends. Tech Friends is a company out of Arkansas that is a known supplier of these communication products to vendors like IC Solutions. Pasco County reached out to IC Solutions to verify do they comply with these services and it was just a simple question and they gave a misleading answer. It says the mail service will be performed by ICS employee on our equipment located at our corporate office. Well, that will be the first time in history that that would ever happen, which essentially means that IC

Solutions is saying we're going to start a whole new line of business and Pasco County is going to be the very first site we provide these services for. essential services for communication that are protected by federal laws to your most vulnerable people, people that are incarcerated and families of those people. And Mike Kennedy, who's here today, you're going to hear next, I hope you ask these questions directly. What agency has IC Solutions processed mail for? It's never happened. He signed an affidavit saying they're going to do it, but that isn't the requirements. The requirements are you have 5 years experience doing just that. So if you look, they have not accepted the RP requirements. They have no experience in providing these direct services and they apparently claim they're going to start the service themselves and Pasco is going to be their first beta site. Smart Communications, on the other hand, invented inmate mail scanning, delivered electronically on tablets, approved electronically by staff, and we implemented it here in Pasco County first in 2016. Is now triple patented service. We were ranked second somehow to a company that's never done it. Uh that's the end of my presentation. I yielded four minutes left. If you have any questions, happy to answer. Well, for me, my question is going to be for the next company. So, how many how many uh counties are you in in the state of Florida? 22. Um we do PK County, Hernando County, um we Penllis, we used to do Pasco. Um, yeah, we're and we're in 29 states with around 200 clients. I appreciate everyone's time. Thank you. I mean, you're still going to be here if we have more questions. We We'll have the other presentation. Let's see. Good afternoon. Thank you. I'm Mike Kennedy. I'm the vice president of sales and marketing for IC Solutions. Address is 2200 Danbury Street, San Antonio, Texas. I personally live in Jacksonville, Florida. Uh, but I've run the sales and RFP process for across the country. Been with the company for 21 years. And as a matter of fact, uh, we've been serving Pasco County 21 years yesterday in some some form or fashion. So, I want to address obviously what Smart Communications is is talking about, but at the same time, uh I want to focus on what our bid says to you and the services that we offer. The protest that I read talks about, uh that and the supplemental protest that Smart put out said essentially that we're subcontracting uh our services out to another provider. And that's not true. I tried to throw some stuff saying that our tablet is a third-party subcontracted tablet. Again, that's not true. Like a lot of people in this market, like all providers in this market, we do specialized hardware providers. The tablet manufacturer that we use, Tech Friends had a tablet. We approached them about a year ago. uh we came to them and we had very specific uh software applications, needs, interfaces, uh hardware specs, uh and and various

other billing, those types of things, and how it became uh and how we wanted it. We signed a specialized MSA agreement with them, and they make that tablet to our specs. They don't make it for anybody else. It's our tablet. We buy it. We own it. We're the prime. We take essentially end to end all responsibility from suit to nuts. We install it. We provide all the service for it. One breaks, we replace it. Those types of things. So, we are the prime. We do have a lot of experience. And that's just in the last year. You got a question? I do. When we're talking about mail, are we talking about email and not have snail mail? Yes. Well, it's it's essentially mail comes into a a location, it's scanned, and then it's essentially provided on the tablet or other devices that an email can look at. So, you're keeping the contraband out of the jail. Oh, right. Okay. So, Madam Chair, yeah, just if we're going to stop, let me just ask I'll get a direct question. Sure. So, it says we need five years experience of doing this. Yes. But on your three references, GTL is mentioned three times. Why is GTL in there whatsoever? Well, we again GTI before Tech Friends was our specialized MSA provider and tech and text behind is a company that exclusively does mail scanning and OCR recognition, some other things that we contract with them. But again, we're the prime. We control the relationship. Yeah. The mail goes to them, but we pay the bills. We do the quality assurance. Techport answers come to us. Right. So, we recognized there was a couple bids out in California that that talked about not being a third-party provider. So, we're based out of San Antonio. And we recognize that we were going to one day, it's pretty rare, but one day need to be uh the provider of the mail service. And that's what we have set up in San Antonio. Now, essentially what we did, let me just stop for a second. But it says you got 5 years experience doing it. Do you have 5 years experience of doing the whole thing? Yes. All right. Well, and and here's why I'm saying this because mail scanning is done two ways. On-site and remote. Remote it goes to a a different office, not on site. We've been doing mail scanning at on-site businesses for many years where we have we supply full-time employees. They're usually called a site administrator or now because tablets are so prevalent they're called a tablet administrator. But part of their duties is to do mail scanning on site. We've taken that essentially those scanners. Of course we got bigger ones, faster ones and we've moved those operations into our headquarters into San Antonio and Pasco will be one of the first ones to do it but because Pasco is asking for it to be not outsourced to another provider. So, so essentially we're committing and that affidavit I'm 21 years with the company. I'm one of three officers in the company. If I lied on the affidavit and it's determined that I lied, I would be fired. So, I'm not going to put my job up, you know, for saying that I'm lying. I am very, very

confident we meet the spec. There's a reason. Oh, go ahead, M. Do you physically take the mail and send it to San Antonio? Uh, no. The mail the the families are notified and the mail is sent to San Antonio. So they're given the San Antonio San Antonio address if they're doing a hard a snail mail. Exactly. And so ultimately what happens is is that messaging is available uh in the uh on the tablets and so 80 85% of your mail goes away and the families turned to messaging because of its obviously it's much speedier than Yeah. snail, right? Madam Chair, I'm still having trouble getting I think a straight solid answer. Mhm. Do you have five years experience doing both ends of the business? Five years experience. Yes. Yes. We have do it onsite and we do it without any uh sub outsourcing. You do the whole thing. No. No. We we do outsourcing on most contracts. But I think but we think what we're saying is we wanted five years of you doing it completely. No outsourcing at all. Do you have 5 years experience without any outsourcing of this process? I I do. I do. I do and I can get that I can get those for you if you want. So why didn't they get submitted? I don't know. I have to talk to the team and see what they were thinking at the time at the Sure. So is it a requirement that when you do a submission that you put all that information in? You're not entitled to put it in after the fact. That's a legal question. Well, yeah. I'm say if you want clarification, I can provide it. That's all I'm saying. I stand by what we got in the RFP. I know, but I've had other RFPs in the past where if they didn't have all the details in front when submitted, you can't go add them in afterward. They have to be done at the point in time. So, I I have a question. How many How many count I'm going to ask you the same question. How many counties are you in in the state of Florida? Uh I want to say I believe it's eight. We have uh the closest one Well, we've obviously we've had Pasco for 22 years. We've got uh Valuchia, we've got Monroe County, we've got Flaggler, we just won that one. Uh got two or three in the panhandle, and we've got there's another one, Washington, uh County, Florida. Okay. So, so you've been doing our county for Yes, for 21 years. Um, well, I have a I have a legal question. Um, what are And I don't know if it's to you or to our head of purchasing because I think Commissioner Mariano brings up a point. if they were required to show a relationship for five years with someone and they put madam chair the wrong people on with all due respect I'd like you to have him finish his presentation and then you can ask questions of the purchasing director or legal counsel. Well, I mean I I've all the good stuff we we pretty much talked about. I I was pointing out I had a couple of slides based upon some of the claims that were made in the initial RFP and it was talking about how we're not a single platform but we are. You

literally sign in one time and you get access to all the services and functions of the mail and and the tablet uh system. Uh all supporting applications are essentially controlled by us uh separately. We've uh uh there was a a claim and that we don't we're not a prime contractor. We absolutely are a prime contractor. There was a mention that we utilize text behind. We haven't utilized text behind in over a year. The RFP that was stated earlier uh where over a year ago I said we used text behind. Uh summer of 2024 was the last time we used text behind. So, so we recognized, you know, we got to do some of this stuff ourselves and uh it's become nail scanning has become more and more prevalent. It's more and more common and and we've recognized that. That's why we believe we have uh be a able to respond positively uh to this RFP and others. Mr. Oakley, Mr. Wheaten, any any other questions? Okay, then I think then then we go to my question and who answers it. Um, we can start with purchasing director and then if she needs assistance, Mr. Hail is is right behind her. Thank you. So, our question sit down. Oh, okay. Well, this is a generic question. Okay. Um, if the Well, are you done with your presentation? Yes, I am. then you can sit down unless the board has further questions. All right. Fantastic. So I guess you know legally did ICS answer put the correct information on the bid when you evaluated it? Yes ma'am. We feel that they answered the do you have five years experience by with their subcontractors and and that is industry standard. you don't have to necessarily do it yourself if you had the experience in the overarching contract. However, in this case, once we looked at the affidavit, it the it seemed like they were just doing everything in-house themselves. The affidavit was very specific that it said in-house by your employees. So, we are um at a loss as well right now. Wait. So, so ICS is compliant with what you were you requested their their subcontractor experience can count towards their five years experience. Okay. So then what I don't know I got lost there. So Robert Hail, assistant county attorney. Okay. Um so to answer your first question, yes we we counted uh the work the subcontractors did for the five years. Um I think the the second issue that Miss Roberts is raising is that some of the answers that were just given don't seem consistent with what are in the affidavit that was provided to the county. Okay, that's and and that's what we wanted to bring to the courts or to the sorry to the court's to the board's attention. We are quite judicious. Um, so it it's it's the affidavit was very clear. Yeah, they listed the three. So, it's it's not only that it's not only that it's the the prime contractor, but it's that none of these none of this proposed or the DPS the DPMS, which is the off-site mail service uh and services will not be

performed by a subcontractor, third party or affiliate, and that seemed inconsistent with what you just heard. But what you but he said he could correct it, but that shouldn't that's what should have been in the affidavit, not is am I right? Am I missing something? Well, typically well, typically we're not going to consider information that's not submitted in the original RFP, right? Especially this late. Did you want to say something to I don't know whether whether you want to point. So the issue that the purchasing director and you you have are the the second part of the affidavit that says inmate calling solutions is the prime contractor of the DP PMS proposed and services will not be performed by a subcontractor third party or affiliate and you believe that Mr. Kennedy's testimony to the board is inconsistent with that portion of the affidavit. Correct. Can I say something that's not what I said? We will do the DPMS in San Anton. You have to be at the microphone if you would like for him to speak. We will do the DPMS in San Antonio with San Antonio ICbased employees. That's what I said a few minutes ago. I know, but is that what you put on your application and your affidavit? That's what I definitely put in my in the affidavit. I as you want to read it, we are not going to subcontract or third party that that service. Is it in the application though? Is it in the RFP? Yeah, I'm sure it is. Yeah, thank this is for purchasing Mr. H. So both companies seem fully capable in your opinion I think to do this work and uh one is a long-standing relationship with the county so kind of know how each other work and the new one is local down in Tampa and they have an extensive resume. Um I I don't know if it's appropriate in this case or not, but I think you go back and negotiate them with either company and get a best and final. And um to me that's probably the best best way to go here. If there is some level of a of a discrepancy, one's obviously better priced than the other. my opinion both are fairly qualified and go back negotiate and do a best and final if that's an option for um Commissioner Mariano but I don't know if that's legal or not. that I wouldn't I would not recommend that that what is before the board is whether or not IC whether or not the protest filed by uh the other company systems uh is valid is correct and if it is that would disqualify inmate inmate calling solutions if it's not you would affirm the purchasing director's decision to award Madam Chair. Yeah. So, let's When was this RFP sent out? January. I'm asking staff. It was released in December. December 24. Yes, sir. Okay. So, when the when Mr. Kennedy says that they have just ended their relation with text behind haven't used them since last summer. It tells me that there's all

those years where they've been using text behind as a subcontractor. So, how can you tell me that you only ended the relationship in July when you're supposed to have five years of not how how does that I mean that right there alone should tell me that they haven't they haven't either submitted improperly because of the data that shows what the first presentation showed that he hasn't done it for 5 years and that's what seems like you've asked for and he just even said he only ended the relationship in July. So, I don't see how you don't step in to say, you know what, we missed it. We didn't see it. I understand how he missed it. He had to dig in to find it. But I think you've been shown that you were told you had 5 years, but from what he's just said in the other guy's shoe before, he's not doing it right. He's not He doesn't have the five years experience. But did you say you consider subcontractors? Yes, ma'am. With it as valid for those five years? Yes, ma'am. That's the issue. He's allowed to use have used them for the five years. They don't just they didn't say they they didn't say only you, right? Yes, ma'am. So, he's allowed to put text whatever there. If I could maybe help clarify this real quick. All right. Let him speak. We'll let you come up. The thing is, Mr. Pasco County changed the rules of how the service works. And due to that, you know, you had two responsive biders. If subcontracts were, in my opinion, weren't allowed to be considered, then you'd have only one potentially one bidder on this project. But she didn't say subcontractors weren't allowed to. She said they would consider them within their experience. Listen, listener. You can use subcontractors. Correct. Pasco. Good. Okay. Let Let You may use subcontractors to satisfy the five years of experience. However, on this exact contract, they cannot perform the services. Yes. Exactly. So, he said and that's what they said they're going to do. He's going to he used the subcontractors in the past, but to satisfy this bid, he's going to take it all inhouse. So he did what I'm hearing is he did what she asked. So but let's hear what you have to say. I can help put this I I can help put this to bed really quickly. They provided three references in their RFP. That should all that should be considered is what they provided. Only one of them has mail service by text behind and it started in 2022. Not five years of experience even with their subcontractors. I'm not sure if that's true or not. go back and check. I can show it to you right now. I Yeah, I mean I think there has to be like affidavit from those companies. I mean we just can't go by right what someone says personally I think. Right. So can we uh punt this and take it up again? Quick question. Yeah. How many references were this supposed to provide?

How many did they provide? I don't have the exact number in front of me, but I do know that they did satisfy the requirements of the references when we asked for them. Did we ask for five and did provide five? There was a date required supposed to be responded to respond from back there. Sorry. Let our purchasing director going to take me a minute to find the documents. How long has your company been in business? ICS. You have to do at the mic while she's looking. Since uh I'm sorry, since 2002. Okay. Thank you. That's So you have plenty of five years experience. Customer, county attorney. Yes, sir. Is this a luxury for inmates or do we have to provide this service to them? I'm going to defer to my corrections lawyer, but I believe it's required. Uh, we have to provide mail to the inmates. We choose to do it this way so that to limit contraband coming into the jail. Mr. Hail, your name for the record, please. Oh, I'm sorry. Robert Hail, assistant county attorney. Thank you. I apologize. trying to find it in 196 pages worth of response. I apologize for the delay. Um, did you did you look at this resolution by the Epson CB district? Could you give us a copy? Well, I I got it. I didn't um curious how that works. Disputes two CDs. That's an old business. They've submitted call your county detention. They've submitted Mcome County Jail, the two county sheriff's office were the three that they submitted. I know. But how many did you require? Three. Oh, three, not five. Five years experience. Five years experience from three. Yes, ma'am. Okay. All right, let's Can we hear from the gentleman? Okay. And you wanted to make one more statement and then we're going to either deliberate or appreciate I I just my point there's three references only one of them is provided a mail service started in 2022 by text behind and I also don't understand how if subcontractors are not allowed how the experience of subcontractors is considered. She said subcontractors are allowed. It doesn't say the RP. It doesn't say they're not. It says they're not allowed in the RP. Can we see that statement? It says they're not allowed for this contract. Yeah, for this contract. But you could use them as references, which is what they did. Is that correct? Yes, ma'am. Okay. So, we're making a change. Can you see that into the record? I'm sorry. Yeah. Yes, ma'am. They can use subcontractors for their past experience but in this case they cannot use them to perform the services under this contract and they have agreed to perform the services. Yes ma'am. So I I see that he complied. I'm sorry that guy complied. Yeah. Um you know I'll take that's the way I see it. Um, wish we could split it in in two, but

um, how long is the contract for? Would be a three-year contract with two renewal options for a total of five years. Okay. Unilateral or bilateral. What What does that mean? Can the board is my decision? It comes to the board. Well, the question is are the are the renewals automatic or so so it's three-year contract and if both parties are happy they go on for another year and then another year correct and did you ever find out the information you were waiting on but she has but I I don't think it's relevant um um to the purchasing director this um doing it all in house is there a reason why we're pivoting to that since it may not be industry norm. That decision was made by the corrections department. I have Chief Jenkins with us. Sure. Let's hear that. Stacy Jenkins, chief correction officer. So, with regards to um the tablets, um tablets are typically utilized for inmates to submit requests to keep paper paper out of the facility. Um it prevents uh opportunities for for fire uh having paper in there. So, we we've gone to a tablet system quite some time ago. With regards to the electronic mail, that's to keep contraband out of the facility. So, I understand that, but why are you saying one company has to do everything rather than have a subcontractor now? That's the change in this contract. So, there there's there's just a preference if you have a problem to be able to go to one individual and answer in in order to answer all your concerns. So, that was just the preference. Okay. Well, and um I'll take a motion, but I feel like I'll move the ICS did answer it correctly. I second the So, the motion is to affirm the purchasing director's decision and reject the protest. Right. That's my motion. And there was a second. And we got a second. Okay. Any more discussion? Okay. All in favor? I All right. Sorry, guys. Thank you, ma'am. Okay. So, we are adjourned for lunch and if there's more public comment, we'll take it up after our what we [Music]