1.28.25 Pasco Board of County Commissioners Meeting (Morning Session)

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I'll never forget praying for your husband in his office uh his freshman year thank you it touched me and I know it touched him and so we have that opportunity to bring God's counsel and God's wisdom to the board see throughout the ages throughout scriptures the governor and the high priest work together now I'm no high priest but according to God's word I am I'm a priest and we have that opportunity to pray in fact I just come from a prayer meeting uh every Tuesday at the Oasis Coffee Spot several pastors and leaders get together and and pray for our governing authorities and so first off i' I'd love to just invite the opportunity that if you have any prayer requests uh email me and and we'll pray if you want it kept private we'll keep it private and just pray between us and this morning as I was praying what am I going to share with the County Commissioners this morning and I kept being reminded of the same scripture that we were hearing during the pandemic okay now that was a tough time but what we were hearing is be still and know that he is our God and he will be exalted among the Nations and he will be exalted in the Earth so I know that if we exalt the King of Kings Lord of lords in our County meetings he's going to give us wisdom and he's going to give us favor because then I believe wholeheartedly that Pascal County will be a premier County in Jesus name amen thank you thank you Keith wiing and I'll have something coming your way who's who did you call Keith Wy for public comment oh yes oh don't let them take good morning Commissioners Keith Wy parks recreation Natural Resources Director I'm here to introduce the Hub and Reagan Weiss oh great that was phenomenal you were the best should have gave him more speaking time hello bccc good morning good morning hope everyone is off to a phenomenal start my name is Reagan Weiss the founder of Hub life Charities and ideas are great but without the right people behind you ideas do not happen come on guys get closer let's love it let's love one another so Hub has been uh nothing but phenomenal he's a big blocker I can't see anyone behind him I apologize hen has been nothing but phenomenal it's been 5 years now guys if you could believe it or not five years of hen um and it's done nothing but great things for this community and I will tell you all these people around me are what made it happened our main sponsors we got to give burkette Ace Nature Coast Roofing Solutions as well as RJ kilty those are our top three sponsors every year but there's one person in particular that we have to thank and that is Mr Mark Mr Mark come on up here please sir guys he's right here come on up for for five years for five years this man has been nothing but a saint

all those barricades all the things that we have to move all the trafficking it's all him all that traff not traffic oh my goodness I said trafficking bad let's cut that out let's cut that out but um all the traffic stuff that he has to deal with um it's all him and I'm really we're really really grateful for you so we want to say thank you so much because without mark this doesn't happen as well we're really grateful let's give him a round of applause everybody app for you I promise you could accept it I promise I promise nothing C but I want to say this everybody without these individuals behind me this doesn't happen guys Hub has been fantastic and I I only have a minute here but I will tell you this it's going to change hub is changing we are no longer going to be doing a drive-through event but we're changing it up for the better we're going to be doing it over multiple weekends more of a family festival type deal and we're doing that guys to ease the traffic for you so you guys don't have to hear the complaints go ahead Catherine I see you speaking I don't hear any complaints I might read them if I choose to go see there but you know we're widening that road and so that'll take care of that problem that would be fantastic when that comes to fruition then we'll uh then we'll have that discussion again maybe to make it a dri be four lane before you know it yes that's that's good to know but in the meantime we're going to alleviate that traffic because you might not hear the complaints but we hear the complaints and uh we don't want to hear those anymore and obviously we want to make this a family-friendly Community event we want to make it comfortable for everyone where there's no um you know impeding traffic so it's going to change this year but I promise it's still going to be awesome it's still going to be very very much fun our Madam president um it cannot be here she has the flu unfortunately Marcia corera but um we have Amanda Hart here Jen Verge and so many others Amanda why don't you come up here really quick and just you have 29 seconds to say some great things about Hub and what we're going to do come on really yep just last minute hello Commissioners Amanda Hart um I was proud to be one of the sponsors this year I've spoken to many of you I know many of you have supported this event we've called you last minute and said hey we need this and you all have made it happen and we're very very grateful for your support thank you thank you so much that being said $30,000 check for the BCC there you go our photo thank you everyone thank you so much um to make a motion to accept Okay let's make I'll accept a motion approval second all in favor I I motion is to uh accept that money accept the [Music] money um does that go straight to the parks department yes okay good I'm going to come down y'all stand behind here cuz there's a lot of he was

coming he was coming to make his grabs on that all right I have two phones so everyone look at me first ready and one two three good one more phone and look at me thank you guys hi Lisa nice to meet you how are you are okay who else do we have well that was a great start to our morning yeah wo the next person I have signed up uh is Jen Burge but I believe that was probably covered with the other got it okay uh Bruce bunad hey you do my name is Bruce Bumstead I live at 15324 Car Lane Hudson Florida and I'm here about selective enforcement and the mining operations and trucking companies on Bolton Avenue that are operating all in a class one site development they've eliminated all the trees off the property they've done dug and Min and filled and done everything against all the rules and all the codes yet they're back in operation again now because the property changed hands and now somebody nobody seems to want to be able to do anything about it so here I am they don't have to be required to have silt fences on their properties because they don't have permits while they're digging up the dirt illegally and sifting the dirt and burying the spoils illegally and the whole nine yards that's going on in the property and just all the activity that I've been trying to get act you know and you guys have made me put my name to all the complaints so therefore I'm here to follow up on the complaints because you've made the effort of making me put my names to the complaints after I've had probably 200 Anonymous complaints against my properties and the whole Wrath of the Department of everybody on top of me and uh we need selective enforcement to stop and we need to have some of these people do their jobs instead of look the other way on the property because the newest complaints on it the woman that was out there she doesn't even know it's been in class one site development since 2013 now that's 11 years that that's been in class one site development while over hundred millionar has been made off that property an illegal dirt movement there's been no pasal Mobility fees paid on that dirt hit in the highway there's been no reculation of how much property how much dirt has been hauled in and hauled out how much has been buried in the ground because they're using it as a transfer stations which they're not being required to do all the things that a transfer station's required to have to do so the oversight of where all the spoils have gone and where all the stuff that's been buried and all that no everybody's looked the other way so maybe now that it's you know can go on public and everything and nobody can look the other way maybe certain points because I've been to the head of all the way up to the highest of the highest in this County to be able to do this even with Patrick eron who's no longer here no more which you know then Jessica Rodriguez the County Attorney she knows

that it's in a class one site development everybody knows it's in a class one site development so you know the the properties they they know which ones it is everybody knows exactly what's going on you know if you need to be more specific I can give you partial ID numbers I can mail them again to my Commissioners but um been trying to address this for a long time okay commission Mariano I was going to say David Ellen is new assistant County ad forment Services I'd like you to meet with him right now and then he can go over with you yeah then pleas please report back to me way too long uh please send let me know what's going on when you're done investigating thank you very much thank you David I meet you in the back there Valerie LEF France good morning I'm Valerie L France Community chaplain for Pascal County and Beyond its borders 9731 Sandstone Lane Port Richie Florida 34668 I have a mandate I here I reviewed the 12 pages of the agenda I want to let you know that in the past there have been those who were doing good and they were told that they could not speak at all in the name of Jesus they were told that they and they were doing good and they were told they couldn't do this in the name of Jesus the reply was that whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God you be the judge for and I'm speaking on behalf of myself now but this is what they had said for we but I'm saying for I cannot speak the things that I have seen and heard I cannot hold back what I have seen and heard with my own eyes even here in Pasco County it is mandated that I am to exhort first of all supplications and prayers and intercessions giving thanks be made for all of you for kings and all of you who are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and Peaceable life in all goodness godliness and reverence for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our savior I'm speaking to the audience also all of you so my prayer is for all of you first to have Open Hearts so you can hear the gospel and the message so you can intimately know who your savior is savior is I am asking also help that you receive counsel not only just from your attorneys but from one another as well as from your constituents we do know a few things also I ask that you're able to te to be understand to trust in him and trust in him only for he will make the path for you and make it straight and easy to understand I ask for protection on each and every one of you including your family members for there is evil out there Sheriff Nako says if you're there we will find you there's evil out there we see it in our own County we kind of laughed about using the word trafficking but we all understood what he was saying we lift up also all of you to have discernment to know what you are to do what you're supposed to say

especially just today you have many items on your agenda we ask also that you be blessed and that your family members be blessed it is very important that we see you blessed for when you're blessed you're able to bless others we ask that you have great discernment when people are trying to do things under the table and you know it's not right Integrity is one of your models we ask that you're able to have the courage to say no that you have the discernment that there's something behind that window and you know not to go for it he will honor you he will protect you and he will give you the right things to do and say we are placing you in his hands so we can trust you it's very important and also to have compassion on each and every one of us whether it's the homeless or those of wealth God looks at all the same way and we want you to also in Jesus name I pray thank you thank you I have Bibles for anyone who wants one one to cnor it's kind of warm in here guys we're all we're all warm up here morning my name is w chov I live at 66 D SL Newport Richie Florida I'm here to say some good things about Mr Mariano I'm dealing with him on some blooding issues I'm dealing with him on homeless Camp that's near my home rinky I have two residents that's on oxygen 100% yes we've had some different since that I've been on the phone constantly calling and everything but the people are still coming back because the the junk is not cleaned up okay I'm so afraid so afraid I'm a fireman's wife I'm so afraid that I'm going to go to bed one night and they're going to have their fires and they're going to blow the neighborhood up because of these two people on oxygen I need this homeless camp shut down no matter what it takes I know the owner's been out there he said oh just clean up the front what you can see that don't stop the debris all the the pine straw and the branches and all this dry we're going to have another California if we continue to let them be there on that property that's not theirs I need your help in with Mr Mariana to please please shut this down this man showed up on the property because it had fires on the Saturday last not this Saturday last Saturday two weeks ago he showed up out there in his shorts and his T-shirt to see what was going on and to talk to the policemen and everything about getting this shut down I need y'all to work with him please please please let's not have our houses burned down I can't sleep at night I can't do anything I'm asking for your help please I'm known in Pasco County because I try to get things done I try to be verbal so I'm here verbal to you as a committee please help us get it shut down please thank you and Jack thanks for all your help and I really praise you a lot thank you I am going to say Irene Wellen that correct ma'am it's Welsh Welsh okay hi my name is Irene Welch I live at 5119 Green Key Road I was away for 3 weeks during the

holidays when you showed up I'm sorry I missed you um I have seen some improvement on Green Key I want to report that um I live directly next door two houses from this homeless Camp my child was attacked he's autistic he was attacked by a homeless man I called the police things were handled I'm happy with the responses that the community's given I see Improvement I said Green Key can be a beautiful place I see it already changing there is still trafficking there's prostitution there is still drugs we have tents these tents need to come down if they have the tents up they have a place to go is there are no trespassing on this property yes then why is this occurring I'm sorry to interrupt you but living there 30 got to stop and and then now they're attacking the residents they're lighting fires I mean I I'm scared I just been traumatized through the flooding I've been flooded I'm a flood victim new to this community and I'm maybe it's my anxiety maybe it's my pdsd but they have no right to be there and I have a right I'm paying rent you know to live there and and you know I want to say I do see Improvement that's more important than the complaining I don't want to complain when we had this going on somewhere else we started finding the landowner for allowing a campground on his property without a permit and I'm sorry this land owners got to be held accountable so thank you and and and that's really what I want we have some tools and we need to use them yeah thank you and and Jack again thank you um for for me and my son and our safety it's it's appreciated that you came out Madam sherff I could before you leave in Wanda um meet with JJ David Allen who's out talking to some else and I see Chase Daniels in the back and Chase thank you for getting some crews out there right away to deal with that Homeless Problem last Saturday too I appreciate it but if you guys would go talk in the back about putting a plan and and talk what's going on absolutely and and and literally if this place caught on fire you'd see California no it's not okay it's a jle how many times have they come here to say they've got a homeless camp that and they feel threatened next to them so thank you very much for bringing this and we thank you this is public comments I'm running I am the chair and I'm running the meeting thank you all right right December 1 Reverend William BS I brought a few examples my name is Reverend William BS 5215 blue J Drive Holiday Florida and I'm sure everybody's aware of our state stone is agati coral nope but we have no place in Pasco County to display this we have examples that I brought in and the maps museum is great but they have no room for anything it's crowded EMC they can't handle it but I would like to see them in all the public schools the libraries starky Educational Center but this is a great opportunity

for us to display these because these came from Pasco County um so we have um Sean in the back who's going to meet with you and uh I'm wondering if you could leave those here and come back and get them later in the day so that we can look at them during the break but one thing that a lot of people don't know is 100 years ago the Catholics built a church a shrine and a wall out of agatti coral in St Leo yeah nobody's ever been there but it's beautiful and it's our state Stone and they're all found right here in Pasco County so I want Pasco County to know what we have all right thank you very much thank thank you so much for bringing that in you're welcome I look forward to looking at it later thanks Sean alen Rose good morning alen Rose 10221 Hilltop Drive Newport Richie Florida just wanted to bring again our waterways issues we have in Pasco County today it's and I've sent you all the information I have impaired waterways we have eight impaired waterways in our County five of which are are within the master plan I've submitted to you before which could be remedied other three need to be worked on Inland and we need to work at that it's uh Bear Creek K River and the uh the Third River uh anyway we just need to address our waterways we I have not seen it done I know you're working on I know it's in the background but if we don't take care of it we're all going to pay for it it already have had this master I've been bringing the master plan to you since 17 or so and had that been in place you would have had about 80% less damage on these last hurricanes we had it's essentially doing what we have to the South if you look at Clearwater Beach and St Pete out on the peninsula they got wiped but on the other side of the waterways minimal damage if we took it took this and made progress with this we could have an offshore Barrier Island 1.2 to 1.5 miles offshore that would protect most of our Coastline they will still be inlets for all the connecting waterways and I've submitted it different ways I just wanted to bring it to you as one piece like that you've got a lot of waterways issues and they need to be addressed thank you thank you very much Madam chair that's all we have signed up in advance and we have no one sign up in advance for this portion of the meeting on is there anyone else here who wishes to address the board okay we won't oh you guys oh come on up quickly sir Peter doie 8728 honeycom Drive Port Richie Florida I am sick and tired of cod and F not doing their job I've complained to Jack's office since April of last year about different violations nothing gets done call code enforcement they want all my information so they can give it to the person I'm complaining about not right i'm 70 years old I'm disabled I can't fight anymore I need something has to be done you get these people coming down here from the land of death and despair

thinking they can do whatever they damn well feel like you're overbuilding in the county we can't handle it we can't we don't have the water we don't have the roadways you just keep on building building building and it brings down more people stop the building and people stop coming down let code enforcement do their job there's no reason why they can't get out there and drive through Pasco County not talking about the Farmland the acreage where people have 3 to 10 acres of land I'm talking about subdivisions Bear Creek Timber Oaks Drive Through see the violations they could go ahead and take care of it and don't just give a warning find them most people just pay the fine they won't even take it to court our law enforcement they speed I watched one doing over 75 mph up 52 to pull into a race track to get coffee and a sandwich it's uncalled for they don't go ahead and do their job they don't pull people over for not using turn signals they don't pull people over for weaving in and out of traffic they're speeding up and down little road these people aren't doing their jobs it needs to be taken care of do you have four five people to a truck ridiculous you have one person that drives one person that supervises one person that uses a shovel and two people to direct traffic in a subdivision that's a waste of money you people don't care about this state or about our count our County I don't believe any of you do otherwise something would have been done about it a long time ago thank you thank you thank you very much is there is there anyone else who wishes to speak to the board okay um we will move on to the PLL list I have C3 withdrawn c18 withdrawn and commissioner waitman has pulled for discussion c28 I'll take a motion for the consent agenda move second all in favor I um we will take up c28 c28 I just want to pull c28 just to recognize the work of the County's El lamp program working with land owners and this is 669 acres in southeast Pasco surrounded by Swift Mud land down there in the Crystal Springs area um it's owned by the the Austin family who's been around Pasco County for a long time so just great just grateful to any land owner that's willing to take uh a price decrease on their property and willing to put it in conservation to help us keep green space and outdoor recreational opportunities for our County so I just want to recognize that with everything that we hear on the opposite end of the spectrum that we are working towards it and with that I move approval um is there a second I have a discussion um I looked at the map and I don't know if would take too long for you to put the map up but what a great acquisition because it can it looks like I can't really tell what's south of it but looks like it's connecting kind of the Green Key swamp area to some big property below cor correct commissioner so uh Keith Wy director of parks recreation natural

resources department that actually is connecting one of the uh ecological planning units that connect the core systems within the county and actually out of County to to the South so yeah it's it's an amazing opportunity we look forward to hopefully a successful partnership with the state in acquiring it and commissioner waitman thank you for acknowledging that effort and last last board meeting we um bought the uh property on Trouble Creek by the Eagle Point Park so great job I keep bringing us more absolutely thank you and we need to make sure we're sharing these successes out in the public so they know what good work their penny is doing okay so now we are on to the RS all in favor I I yes so that motion was on the entire consent agenda including 28 correct 2 was separate we we already voted on on the consent this is just 28 okay we're going to be pulling r31 up ahead of R30 so who's running that one [Laughter] nobody I agenda me my name is Tracy Kay I'm the director of operations for B care Behavioral Health this this agenda me item Kathy was going to introduce me but I think she stepped out so okay do you want me to still go ahead and yes go ahead great to see you again hi hi everybody um uh thank you for inviting me here today to share how the county match funds are utilized to support those struggling with mental health and addiction issues in our County I I did have a PowerPoint but oh it's coming all right so um I'll just keep going um Bay care Behavioral Health is part of the bay Care Health System we provide services in five counties in the Tampa Bay area we employ over 1500 team members and treat over 70,000 patients per year we've been providing Services specifically in Pasco County for over 50 years um our Continuum of Care within this County includes outpatient clinics both mental health and addiction um it's coming it looks like um we have specialized Community prevention programs where we try and get Upstream of the mental health and addiction issues in our County so we get you know intervene younger intervene the communities intervene the schools we do a lot of uh collaborations with law enforcement with the jails with the schools with the child welfare programs because not any one of us can kind of do this work alone we also have our own graduate Med medical education program what that means is we um have our own residents right Psychiatry residents so we are training um the baby doctors how we want them to be trained and really trying to teach them what we want them to know about addiction and mental health and hopefully they'll stay here once they're kind of graduated so we're very proud of that we are in our fourth year of that so we're about to have our first graduating class we also do Services um specific for veterans and housing and then we have two residential

programs one for for children this is the right side thanks um one for children and one for adults and addiction um next slide please so the county match specifically um provides really a valuable safety net for high-risk Pasco residents who are either unfunded meaning they don't have any insurance at all or they're under underinsured so they have insurance but it may not cover the needs that they have um we collaborate with and have Partnerships we try and work together with all those in the community um and really try to utilize those funds in the most um for the ones that need it most especially when it comes to crisis related Services which I'll go into detail in the next few slides first is our integrated stabilization unit um this is um 8002 King Healey Boulevard this for those of you that don't know I think most of you do this was the first of its kind in the State of Florida where we combined a detox detoxification center and a crisis stabilization unit and I think that's really important to say so you have to say it again it's the first of its kind that's right that's right so the first one in the State of Florida in in we did this we opened this in 2013 it's been wildly successful it's a 30 bed unit um so whether you're coming in for you know um overdose or alcohol rated issues or um or more depression and feeling suicidal or you know at risk of hurting someone else we don't have to discern which one it is because a lot of times they very much overlap right so this is what this this um this level of service does and so we stabilize them you'll see on the slide the data um we continue to treat you know um you know, 1400 00 or so a year um 18800 I'm sorry my glasses on for 2024 and that's both the crisis and the detox combined what we're most proud of is our recidivism rate is sits at 11% that is a very low recidivism rate when it comes to alcohol and drug um and Mental Health crisis response um next slide please our mobile crisis response team is sort of the kind of the next level down from the the ISU the Integrated Service stabilization unit and that is 247 you can call anyone in Pasco County can call and we will respond right we will respond on site to homes to schools law enforcement will come with us when it's a a situation where that's necessary and um try and divert the crisis we want to keep people out of that level of care I just talked about keep them out of our ISU right get them into like outpatient services something that's less costly um more treatment versus just stabilization and um I am proud to say that you know in this past year with all the you know over thousand calls that we did get we diverted 87% of those calls meaning 87% of those calls that we received that we went out on to talk to people instead of Baker Acting them right or Marchman acting them or you know um committing them involuntarily we were able to create a safety plan and keep them in the community and get them connected to Services that's huge like that's been a

really big win for our community and when it comes to County match dollars you know the numbers aren't reflected in these stats necessarily but um when the county calls we there to help right so if it's after after a hurricane and there's some some need to you know call individuals ual who you know um might need May reaching out to the county for support or if he just needs to go out on site those are the kinds of things that we'll do and are available and have been and so it's been a really good partnership next slide oh no once again we're having technical difficulties I don't know I just have just two two more slides um next next one there you go so this one is sort of um you know once someone's been you know um um got kind of in in a crisis sort of mode where they've been hospitalized or they've needed our mobile crisis team we really want to get them linked to our outpatient services they can see a psychiatrist they can get their medicines that they need um we have a pharmacy on site we have you know Services East Pasco West Pasco we have a recover our Recovery Center in central Pasco so we really try to make sure all the needs of our County are met um and and so that's kind of the third level and then the last slide I'll just before I take any questions I just wanted to share this is kind of a it's kind of an ugly picture but it is like the aerial view of our our West Pasco campus so where we have our children's services and our Adult Services that I just described but in green that will be our Behavioral Health Urgent Care Center I just want to um remind everyone that that will be the first of its kind in the State of Florida and it will be opening on Monday and it was supported by funds from both cdbg and the opioid settlement fund so we are very excited about it we will have a talk to many about this but we will have a ribbon cutting sort of open house in in the weeks to come and we're trying to figure out the best date and time for that but we hope you will all be there and we're very excited about that and I'm happy to answer any questions you know um when um Tommy I can't remember his last name the yeah Zinga is Zinga enena um he convened a meeting I don't know 5 10 five six years ago um with actually pul Pasco Hernando I mean hillsbor and penelas and I went down the sheriff went down all the sheriffs were there um some County Commissioners and some business leaders and discuss what what could we do about this opioid crisis and how how best to spend some money when it comes and how could we you know start going after this problem and if you saw at the Tri County meeting two weeks ago um and sorry a couple of you weren't there but or was it last week I don't know we every County stepped up to say what they had been how they had been spending their opioid money well the others were talking about how they're going to spend it and we're opening our Center Monday I mean we put our money to work right away on Cutting Edge absolutely Solutions and I'm just so proud of what we're doing I

I'm going to bring it to no to have them talk about it on a national scale because um this you want to talk just a little bit more about this BH urgent care and there may be questions and you're exactly right so the the opioid settlement dollars you know so Bay care is in five counties so we are part of these conversations when it comes to opioid settlements and all the other counties as well um and you're absolutely right Pasco County is really the only County that has really gotten the dollars out there Hernando's done but they has also but they just don't have as much wasn't much money but um but really this is the only County where it's been Innovative there's been a process we've gotten the dollars out the first year and really um you know the task force that's been created is a really great group of Minds that you know really wants what's best for our community and what's really going to help individuals and I um I think kind of the big bold idea with the Behavioral Health Urgent Care which you know what that means is it's sort of that you know I talked about integrated stabilization unit it's like a locked unit where you go when you're at the deep end of Crisis right and I talked about sort of outpatient services which is more like routine care you go once a week for therapy or once a month for medicine this is sort of in between right you know um maybe you think you might need to be hospitalized but maybe you don't right maybe you can and you can walk in like if you think about physical Health Urgent Care you know you may have a sinus in you may think you need antibiotics because of a sinus infection or you may have a kid who has a needs an X-ray because maybe they sprained an arm so you want to be able to get in quickly you want to walk in you want walk in a availability you want to schedule an appointment if you don't have a lot of time and so that we take we're taking that same concept and We're translating it to Behavioral Health Services so someone who is you know been struggling with depression just feels ready right because sometimes that's what that's about like they're just ready to change right they're ready to say okay you know what I'm going to go talk to someone I'm ready to talk to someone we'll be open in there for them to do that you know instead of going straight to an emergency room right instead of or our jail or jail that's right right this could yeah this is a diversion right so come there first and get really treatment get Services you know right away in real time versus kind of getting the taking a longer route to get to that same place so we're very excited about it yeah same so I see it as a national model yes yeah uh Tracy thank you very much for bringing this forward I had uh asked for this presentation a little bit ago when I saw it was a state mandate want to see what was going on we met um Blown Away by your phenomenal numbers I mean for three to five day care for people in super trouble let's say for you to get back with only 8 11% recidivism is amazing um and hopefully

we can work on other things that will help you deal with that as well um and you were one of the largest recipients of money and I'm so glad to see that building which was just I would say shuttered in but it was like a storage area and now to see it come to life to to to go is going to be phenomenal I hope use their our Landscaping money to offset some of that con while yeah I got to call you about that yeah I I need some help probably but yeah so yes but absolutely that would someone here can talk to you about that you know I want to say for the board as well one of the things we also funded at the same time was a steps to recovery program for the veterans uh for long-term stays I they could stay for a year or two whatever it may be they've been doing this for many many years uh they recently came to me about their program um and they were trying to keep it moving so they got like site plans ready to go Etc the one on Trouble Creek on Trouble Creek yeah so we talked to them about raising it up they're going to work with our staff to get a site plan moved where they can actually take and keep the stuff in place it might have to Vault some of the storage for storm water but to go up there they're going to be able to double their units if we can at some money from the cdbg Dr money coming up so that'll be coming our way in a little bit but I think for like when you say 3 to 5 days they come back that 11% for the people that need help for down the road right if they're veterans especially that can go they'll if they don't fill up with the veterans they'll even take other folks that's great so they could be a great partner with you coming up as well absolutely no doubt about it but I want to thank you guys for coming in you're doing a phenomenal job um the the results speak for themselves for what you're doing your commitment is great um and again this facility is going to be a great one open up to the county so thank you you thank you and we look uh forward to the ribbon cutting awesome can't wait thank you okay okay um now we are going to move to R30 and that's our budget hearing all right good morning Amy frell um budget director with Pasco County's Office of Management and budget I'm here with item R30 om 2528 which is our discussion on fiscal year 2026 budget yes that is right we all just celebrated New Year for 2025 but we are here to talk next year all right so we're going to talk about the budget cycle so just an overview and a reminder of the touch points and the process and when we'll be public facing and then doing some behind the scenes work on building out our budget for the next fiscal year we're we're going to then talk about um it makes sense to talk about where you're going when after you've looked a little bit at where we've been so we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at where we've been to Pivot to where we're headed and then we'll start talking about those upcoming budgetary pressures on the fiscal year 26 budget then we're going to have some good dialogue and discussion around strategic planning our

approach to different kinds of funding mechanisms to include Taxation and long-term capital all right so um if you look at the green squares this is where we've been in this cycle so we did a big kickoff with all of our County departments last week which is basically the initiation of budget cycle it is go forth and start planning um and then here today we're talking big picture highlevel priorities and Direction here with you all and then in February uh just next month I'll be back and we'll talk about our big Revenue projections on those major Revenue sources and then we'll do some briefings in March where we look at the state of the general fund in the early parts of the budget cycle we'll um come back and have a workshop in April with our constitutional officers like we did last year um it went so well having that dialogue and being able to plan together um so we're just really hoping to build off that momentum and looking forward to it and then um behind the scenes we're me and Mike are going to be peppering our directors to make sure that we're thoroughly combing through needs versus wants and putting forth the best possible recommended budget for you all when um June comes and we've got preliminary taxable assessed values from the Property Appraiser's office and we can have another Workshop um with some more fine-tuned Revenue projections and then July we'll adopt trim and then we'll have two hearings in September to adopt the final budget all right so let's talk a little bit about where we've been so before you looking at the last 14 years how has the county grown how has demands for service grown and then at the same time how has our overall operating budget grown and so when we look at our population we've grown 36% over the last 14 years that's not nothing that's a pretty big number right so we talk about we've got growth coming into the county well what does that mean from a service delivery pressure perspective so we pulled out some four key data points for you all we've got single family permits now when you look you say 644 Amy that is crazy talk that yeah we're booming right so that translates into probably a more palatable number roughly 6,000 more single family permits are getting processed annually than what was happening in 2010 when we look at tons of trash that has grown by 32% since 2010 our utility connections up 55% and then calls in for Public Safety has gone up 177% now we've been able to meet that call for Demand by growing our operating budget by only 30% our population has grown more our demand for service our meeting of that service has grown more than our budget has which means we've been very efficient we've made sound financial decisions that lead us to maintaining a level of affordability amongst our peers and some might venture to say our competitors in terms of targeting growth and Industry that we're trying to bring into the county so three key tax watch

metrics that we're looking at here that kind of show where we rank in terms of affordability average total property tax millage rates we're below Hillsboro we're below panel we're below the state average and this metric is looking at all jurisdictions this includes couny cities School mosquito control Etc our next data point is per capita County government property tax levies so these are your county levies um mstu msbu are General obligation bonds and here we are also below Hillsboro we're below the state and we're below penelas yeah and then this third and final metric are per capita taxable value so this is the county taxable value not the Schoolboard taxable value and we're looking at just value of all of our properties in the county less any exclusions exemptions Etc right and so we're maintaining a level of affordability that we would expect still meeting increased demands for service a growing population and being very judicious with our financial decisions all right so that's where we've been now where are we headed all right so budgetary pressures on the upcoming fiscal year 26 budget so Public Safety this includes Staffing our dshift so fiscal year 26 will be the first full year of running all four shifts at every fire station so that's going to have a monetary impact which we have been planning for this is just a reminder we also have our jail expansion so as construction is pacing we're pacing Staffing up the jail expansion as well and then of course um we also know that we're going to have some budgetary pressures related to the sheriff and his budget needs annual contract for low barrier housing so as a result of the storms and we've had some folks who are displaced we put up a contract for managing some case work there and we're going to have to plan what does this all look like when we pivot through storm to homelessness low barrier housing um our Wesley Chapel Library will be coming online so we're going to have to fully staff that uh wage and benefits for fiscal year 25 we worked to comp in class study and that was baked into the 25 but we want to make sure we don't lose ground so we'll be looking at what's an appropriate wage adjustment for the upcoming fiscal year um retirement and Medicaid those rates come later we know those typically go up so we've got a plan for that uh fiscal year 25 is year four of our utility rate study so for 26 we'll be looking at building the next four-year rate resolution so in the summer we'll have a hearing to work on that tax base adjustments I just talked about the two storms well the three storms so that is going to have a monetary impact on our tax base we're still trying to figure out what that looks like um residents have until March 1st to apply for those exemptions so it's still a bit early for us to be able to say hey this is what this might look like in the coming years um but just know that that's out there and then of course sustaining our public facilities this could be anywhere from

our Parks facilities to General County government buildings but if we build it we probably should maintain it and there's always going to be a cost Associated before we move on do we have any questions um yes I had some if you could go back on the 911 117 yes um could you dive into that a little little more cuz that's an interesting number oh I so by dive in you want me to break out what makes up those calls okay so in 2020 um so we don't have we weren't able to parse out fire and EMS related versus sherff calls in 2010 because of the system that we were on but for 2020 and 2024 we can parse those numbers out um for we see fire had an increase of about 25,000 calls per year from 2020 to 2024 um with the sheriff we saw a slight reduction of approximately 20,000 calls from 2020 to 2024 but our overall calls went up so if you did that per capita that'd be an interesting number to kind of run because our population has increased but the calls have gone down so I I don't know how to do that math but no I'm I'm not going to do it right now but I'm going to make the note and we'll do it um and you said fire was up up how much roughly 20 25,000 and I guess we kind of know that as being one of the most one of the busiest yeah we have one of the busiest EMS services and do you break that out to actual fires versus calls for UL ambulance or yeah I'll let assistant County Administrator Murphy answer that 80% of the responses are for EMS okay we track about 100 ,000 calls a year uh so between 75 and 880,000 of those are ems calls and do we have any way to break out what the sheriff's calls are you don't have to answer it now but it'd be an interesting I don't know how how I don't know how deep we can get into some of this but is okay that's a question I'll ask the sheriff one day in one of my coffees Chase can find that out you yeah' be interesting to know okay thank you oh I had yes oh sorry I thought you I had another one but I don't I never think the chair should go first so I have another one but I'll go last I'm going to tie into one that you've talked about so about uh as far as recycling goes uh we stopped doing glass a while ago commissioner starky had actually brought up a yeah possibility about using glass a different way of disposing of it have we looked at that at all or is that part of the scope coming up for the budget I think we did take a look at that uh let me let me make sure we didn't respond to the board with a memo on that with the glass recycling we'll we'll get back to you on that commission and um and when when I did that presentation a private provider did get a hold of me PA PW and they have the ability to do that for us to if we don't want to do it ourselves they'd be interested in being

a sub contractor orever that works so but we really should be putting that glass to work yeah anything's better whatever we can do to divert it depending on cost Etc hey Mak sand for our beaches so part of what you need to look at is the cost of actually doing that or yeah make sure the ROI there is a cost right you you got to look at it but again there's a cost to cost us more money than we're going to get from it maybe we shouldn't be doing it so yeah well here we got to look at it to see yeah here's the thing those big piles in the landfill are very expensive to redo millions and millions of dollars so if we can avoid that and take a look at it economically what's the best move I think it's worth a look and just like just like we did with Merl Brothers years ago we looked at it yeah went through many different things we finally found with something that worked and it's working great there could be an opportunity there too so I just want to look at it yeah the solid waste team just so the board can be assured is looking at a number of Novel things on using that Ash anywhere from concrete additives to even road base so you know having that glass in that stream is could be helpful for those Avenues but uh confident Mr Pisa and his team will run the business analysis that's that's how they operate in solid ways so we'll be sure to get back to you okay uh I another another Avenue I want to track on you you talk about the annual contract for L Barry housing obviously I know you're working very closely negotiating to make sure if it's not a capacity the numbers should be coming down what you think and I appreciate that I want you to just consider a couple of things and Eric I don't know where we stand but those we had a bunch of trailers that were sitting at Denton I know they've moved I know they're they have to be for the hurricane I want to make sure we're going to get those filled I know there's people at uh Holy Ground and matter of fact this could be a good opportunity for us to go look at they've got spots for old trailer spots where they could actually fit a bunch of uh trailers if not trailers might even better those homes we saw at the um uh Grand Boulevard thing could actually work out really well too because they've got enough land they could put a centralized bathroom that could work just like just like we're doing there the beauty of that is we'd have to maintain it where's the land uh it's up on us 19 north of Houston uh tucked in way it's an old it's a shelter that's been there for probably four or five years now you know they were down in they were on the 19 yeah they were down at Denton 19 before but they got a new building uh facility which is even better by the way Kathy I want to thank you we helped the Holy Ground they had this shelter building that was going to have to be shut down that probably protects 10 different people uh having a new roof on that building thank you uh they can outr run it and looks perfect so thank you for

making that happen um you when I think about like Sunrise Recovery Center uh and I know we've got some other ones out there that are helping some um young ladies that have been abused over time I think with the CBG CBG money coming up that could be something we could look at it's housing uh if it can be tied anything stor related probably something to look at as well okay and I have some more questions but I think they can come later when you get into some other things guys any questions on what she's spoken about so far I'll make my comments when she's done okay all right thank you all right so now as we start our budget cycle we want to make sure that we're framing the conversation around our strategic plan and what are those key priorities and are we putting our resources where we need to be from a high level strategic position so the next three slides we're talking about the different Focus areas within our strategic plan which goes from 2025 to 2030 talking about those addressable challenges the goals associated with those and is there anything at this point in time that is so pressing that it should be top of mind for leadership and administration as we're going through the budget process we're going through looking at new initiatives and where where might we want to you know divert some resources in the immediate in this 5-year plan so the first Focus area um is kind of the the Bedrock pillar if you will where we're looking at create a thriving Community right we need to do that first before we can move on to to other other types of needs and wants right so we're looking at maintaining public health and safety we're looking at Community resilience and sustainability and the demands of rapid growth and then you all should have a copy of the Strategic plan in front of you and if you just fold it open you'll see the three goals associated with those challenges we're looking to improve capacity and capability of our emergency service responses we're looking to protect vulnerable critical assets and communities from extreme conditions and we're focusing on putting a bow on that comprehensive plan and then pivoting to Priority portions of Our Land Development code that might need to be tweaked so we can meet those demands of rapid growth so anything in here that's that feels more pressing than something else that Mike should be keeping in mind as we're working through this budget cycle yeah and just as a reminder these are these are the areas that when we see new spending or things that are coming along this is where we think we should funnel it and so we just want to make sure that this is all still top of mind and and present from a strategic perspective because these are goals that we we think we can we can achieve I think we can improve the capaity capability of our emergency response service we're going to we're going to reach a point we're going to move to the next goal that is that is still related

to maintaining public health and safety so again this is just confirming that as we go through the budgeting process um go ahead commissioner Mariana I was going to say I think I think going to be important for this year especially coming up between the again the CBG money Dr money that's coming in that we try to maximize that we've got uh some some great state representatives we have representatives for lobbyists and I think with ballad and DC I think we should be looking to try to help this budget as much as we can to try to leverage the projects we want to get done and try to use the federal and state money that's out there that we try to work with as well with the project can can tie in and go anyone else um so one of the things that comes to my mind um is septic to sewer and um I also think if this money still sticks after what the president did yesterday um that we can use this uh for is is doing some conversions and it's still embarrassing the were that this county has not done one that I know of um and yesterday I had a meeting um with the gentleman who lives in Odessa area and he mentioned that um so there's a lot of lakes in in Odessa in Odessa area south of 54 that uh someone he knew went swimming in one of those lakes and got septic I don't I can't remember the disease they got but all those homes around those Lakes are are on old septic systems so I've asked for our our staff to go test those Lakes um but we just have to start cleaning up and um I know this county has has avoided uh taking on septic to sewer conversions but we've really got to get serious about it Madam chair yeah I we haven't avoided it we've just tried to get funded and it hasn't been easy I mean we we've got a great project up at C Pines but there there's ways that other Counties have gotten funding um for example Charlotte County up in Washington and from Tallahassee I don't know we just haven't been successful but I feel we just have to keep it keep working on it commission Oakley on that uh some of that funding's come through before through Swift Mud and then some come from the state on programs that would go from septic to sore yeah and and that's a lot of the coastal to the north herand the Springs spr I have an update we can perfect time to talk about all this then I have a whole binder for at the Comm committee updates yes okay yes okay all right so let's move on to the next pillar unless there's any more discussion okay all right so our second pillar we're looking at enhancing our quality of life so here we're focusing on reducing homelessness making sure we've got access and availability to cultural educational and social opportunities for all and balancing our natural landscape and urbanization and so when you look at our goals we're looking at making homelessness rare brief and non-recurrent we're looking at increasing availability and access to our cultural educational recreational

and social opportunities and we're ensuring protection and conservation of our natural ecosystems so kind of same dialogue as the last one is there anything that's top of mine for you all that we should be focusing on uh commissioner waitman thank you so we heard about homelessness this morning and I think the east side of the county is probably as high as it's ever been at least to the noticeable to the ey visual eye when it comes to I look at a thriving community and when you maintaining public health and safety homelessness fits in kind of bucket one and bucket two with enhance the quality of life um I really want to understand and commission Marano's alluded to this several you know in different conversations throughout the time I've been on the board I really want to understand our options I I want to be as disciplined as possible with how much money we throw at it because we're taking valuable resources from our taxpayers you know no choice of their own this government takes their money and we're putting it towards people who don't give two rips about other people's property businesses they don't care about themselves they don't care about this County they don't care about what they're doing and so I want to be very deliberate and uh aggressive on how we tackle this problem like what are our options can we chip them to their next Akin it's really a family problem we find their next kin and we give them a bath something to eat and and give them a bus ticket or a train ticket to their next to Kin and they can't deny them this these folks that are doing what they're doing here is not should not be our taxpayers problem this is a family problem and their families need to take care of that they don't need to burden our tax dollars um you know and so I I'm I'm I'm getting uh more and more frustrated by the day with this cohort um and I really you know we have it's going to cost some money but I don't want to invest anything in them because they don't care um and so we should send them send them back to a family member something I just want to understand what our options are deliberately that way we know and we can make the hard decisions if need be that this Board needs to make I think we've broadly gone around this topic but we haven't narrowed down and defined what we can do uh as a board not necessarily from a sheriff's perspective what Our obligation is and what we can do to make something happen to because I don't necessarily agree with whether a property owner is here or they're out of state or another country I have some reservation on finding Property Owners when other people consciously make a decision to trespass on their property and do what they're doing we have the right in this Society to own land it's not always the landowner's fault that people from other

places come in and do what they do on those properties and impact other people um so that's a a you know we were talking about finding the land owner that sort of thing I'm hesitant with that so I really want to narrow down and have real answers on what we can do and let it be known in Pasco County if we make the choice to lay the hammer down on this subject matter folks who are transient through this County need to know the consequences I'm sure it'll spread through the homeless communities on what the disciplinary action will be uh but I'm ready to go to level 10 and put our foot down and you know make some real changes here so I think that impacts one and two um and you know I know it's could be a little bit of an uncomfortable conversation but it needs to be had thank you chair Madam chair you know to talk about years ago when we looked at what of those were're doing with the homeless and one of the programs we looked at was at San Francisco which I did not want to copy uh their most successful service they did with all the millions and billions of however much money they spent um was actually as you just said shipping people back to where they came from and I will tell you I know that we've been victimized by people from other places bringing their people to here and they come here I don't want to be the beacon for the homeless to come no take care of our own Etc but anyone from a different place and I know we did this with the with the United Way a few years ago we put like 30 or $40,000 aside so they could ship them out the sheriff loves the idea as well I think it's a program to go with and and make it easy um talking to Pastor Jen the other day she had some people from out of town up in Virginia they've got next to Ken they'll be for like two more weeks and they're going back up that's I think one of the ultimate approaches the other thing that we did years ago we put a pan handling ordinance which didn't work uh we then put the RightWay safety units in place I will tell you I I have to text Pat Phillips continually over and over again these guys will go out there they'll work after 5 we've got to do something after 5 we've got to do something on Saturdays we got to do something on Sundays when they can stand out there and they leave their trash everywhere right and it's a bad blight on the community they leave their trash there and they stay out there they make money doing it they keep doing it we've just got to we've got to crack down on that um I'll give you another idea years ago someone brought up the idea Brazilian Peppers invasive species how do you really Implement that on people uh but I think maybe we should look at and Mr County attorney if you can kind of think this through a little bit for us uh maybe there's a way we can put in this ordinance if there is trespassing found and you do have homeless people there we put some type of invasive specie

ordinance in place where they got to get rid of them cuz Brazilian Peppers where they can hide around the Brazilian Peppers real easy I thought you were calling the people invasive no no no no but those invasive species make it easy to hide I see many properties going up and down like on Little Road braan they clean them they make them they clean out so they don't go in there it's good for them it's good for the landone it's good for us as well so if we can work on something like that that may be another bit of help but I I agree with you it is a big problem uh but if you keep giving them a way where they can stay in the woods and do their drugs they're going to stay in the woods and do their drugs to St commission uh to go about how to straighten some of that out some of the property owners need to trespass people yeah I've had them tell me personally on the phone they're out of state or whatever and they're willing to trespass and I've worked with uh Chase Daniels on this issue we get the okay that he'll trespass when we find somebody on that property yet when we call him about trespass passing him he he walks away so you can't do anything with it if you don't follow the law to be able to trespass people and the the land owners that own some of this land that they're trespassing on do not do their part to make sure they get off that land so that's just one of the issues and I agree and and and sometimes for example we had a land owner who lived out of state and we've had one that lived out of the country on US 19 at that old Helen Ella site and I mean that was a dump right as you're coming into the county on us9 I mean that's not what we want to present and we could not go and evict them right because it was private property and he hadn't signed that um trespass agreement so I I think we need legislation that gives us more tools but um commissioner waitman I I understand your frustration and um I I see it too but I just want to be careful to paint all of them with the same brush because I I'll never forget when I was at a Home Depot a couple years ago and a young father uh was there with his wife and two kids and they were looking for a tent uh the kind that you take to a soccer soccer field and um or a different no a camping tent and that the kind they sell the soccer field type tents at hel Depot and I heard him saying describing what kind of tent he need needed because he was going to move into starky Wilderness Park and I went whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa and I had a conversation with him and he said he had gotten sick missed one paycheck fell behind in his rent and was evicted and he didn't have the money saved up to move into another place with down payment and um security deposit and so now he and his young family were homeless so and but he still had his job so so you know there are cases where um people need just a little bit of a helping hand and I'm so glad we have the place up in uh on youth on youth Lane is

that where it is but then we have the other ones that don't care um they want to live in the woods they don't want anyone to tell them what to do and they like living that way and so uh I just want to be careful that we have we have both situations going on and I think the ones like that young family are the easiest ones to help yeah they don't need a lot they just need a little bit but the ones that don't care and uh trash everything and do drugs and Rob and steal there's got to we need to get rid of those guys so I will say just using your example of that family there are organizations like one Community now that will help let's say put displaced people like that in a hotel for however long they'll even help them with a down payment so I think I I I think there's two different types of yeah when we helped that young family they called they called Marcy's office and they got into uh into temporary housing and then they got perent housing so I think that'll come out in a wash we come up with a very strict policy if you're going to talk to these people there's going to be interaction we will then find out what kind of level of situation or homelessness they're in but until then I mean we need very deliberate action very Swift action and not some long drawn out like this thing you know 30 days at a time I mean I think we can move pretty pretty quick I would think on figuring out where somebody is and then it's just getting that process down and you'll find those situations and then you identify it and then we address it as they come but until we we have a very disciplined process I think that uh you know it'll take longer for examples like that family to get help because we're not getting there timely enough for for whatever reason so I think it's just a matter of us taking that big step forward and having some really real decisive policy to figure out what's go what's what what's going on there and uh I'm not opposed to what commissioner Marano's saying it it's probably more feasible um and if the sheriff likes it takes pressure off his organization of being distracted with dealing with situations like that and putting his officers in a dangerous dangerous spot so um I just I just think this year uh it's it's time for us to really narrow down on that subject of what we're going to do and how we're going to do it and understand obviously the legalities around it so maybe that's uh something that we will reserve for a uh Workshop or deeper dive into with that okay all right there we go all right sorry for my technological issues but I got us on to the third Focus area so the third and final Focus area of our strategic plan is around driving economic growth and prosperity so the um addressable challenges here

are meeting affordable and attainable housing needs our stressed communities and some supporting our Small Business and Entrepreneurship and so when we do a dive into the pamphlet you will see those three specific goals around these areas are increase the supply of affordable and attainable housing inventory support the Redevelopment of stress communities and increase the support of our Small Business and Entrepreneurship so same kind of of question as before anything on here that's a little bit more pressing than the others that we should be kind of leaning in in this upcoming budget cycle do anyone want to discuss anything on this one mam chair yeah so I know we got an agenda we just passed about Mobility fees I think we need to really try to focus on helping these small businesses uh not have to pay large fees try to help them encourage them with our economic development but I don't think it's directly with our budget itself but I think that's a great direction for us to look at as we go so um so you know I spoke to David angle about this you know we all have we're all throwing ideas out on our HUD money um if it comes through um one of the ones I threw out there was there were a lot of signs damaged in the hurricane um and uh of small small businesses and can we use some of that money to help them fix their non-conforming signs and and and whatever else may have been damaged on their building facades or whatever and help them is m m no and um and and help these small businesses so that's something there will check that's a great idea I actually had a uh the Elks up and Hudson had their side damage and they want to trying to do something for small to keep their revenues going in so they asked about their sign uh some possible fencing as well so I think it's a great idea yeah I I agree this it's I was surprised to learn how expensive it is to engineer and build a sign I mean you talk about a a bone acre around a business's small business's neck that's one right there yeah and now we have money to help them so we can I think that might be a nice fit and I think that needs to be for whether their sign was damaged or non-conforming something figure out a way whatever we can do for for it needs to be Universal I think so I'm going to I'm going to float another idea yeah sorry madam chair go ahead uh so stress communities I think everybody on the coast that get hit by these storms is stressed right now yeah right we're just getting them to go through the permitting process they're getting turned over with David Allen's help hopefully a bit quicker and and we'll get more success with that um but one of the things about becoming resilient with housing is I want I want to think I want you guys to think about this a little bit Senate maners is a really nice Community right well-maintained mobile homes Etc the ones in the back of the community that were sitting a little bit lower they got nailed let's say just

if you get 2 feet you're nailed a lot of rehab and a lot of them are getting rehabed right now if they sat just like 2 feet higher 3 feet higher they'd have probably been dry like the front of the park Sundance Lake would probably be another one um I know places that west of I don't know where that is West everything I'm talking about is west of 19 so you want to keep mobile homes West of 19 well here's the thing if people have their home it's the only thing they've got and let's say I mean you got families generational like three generations living in Senate manner they bring their friends down they come they come it's an inexpensive place to live so what about um taking those lots and letting habitat come in and build them a better a better house more resilient on the coast um you know when the when the time comes for the mobile to come down maybe but if they're living there and it's a viable structure and look through the storm very little damage in there it's just the flooding so if they were just up higher just think about all the time and money title Bas and FEMA spent going through there if those things are up like 3 feet higher and I tell you what I got people in Signal Cove that area you got it's a community these people have lived there for years I just don't think mobile homes should be in a flood AE Zone a Zone let me let me keep going because there's more more to what I'm going to get to so for those that want to stay there it's their home it's still America they want to stay there why am I going to take them out because I got FEMA rules at 25% if they want to stay there and I can save FEMA and the families just by raising them up 3 feet and a lot of those homes would had no water in them we'd had nothing to deal with but what what about give giving them a house that helping them get a more stable house I'm going to get to that next but so so the other thing to think about is you get some of these homes that let's say they're concrete block Etc if you raise them up uh to the BFE and and just above it's like 200 Grand plus right you get an older house you get it sitting up there not as much value but it's safer right if it was up 5 feet maybe it's less money I don't know you've also got the opportunity as we look at it to make it more resilient now let's say that I guess someone who's going to weigh if I put a bigger incentive out to go take okay if you tear your old house down or your old trailer down you raise something up we put more money into it what that does and I longterm if they can afford to do it some can some can't it would help make that decision made to go and I got a couple of people doing it they're tearing down their house they had to make sure they got to the 49% tearing their house and putting a brand new one up fully modernized now I think if we could look at putting a huge chunk of money for the housing part we got coming up for these stress communities you would improve your tax base tremendously you would give them a better place to live and if you look at Gulf Harbors on

the far side like after the storm I think I saw one or houses with stuff in were probably bottom floor nothing else in there yeah that's the type of thing if you raise everybody up and give them the opportunities so I think it's a long discussion but for the housing part of that cdbg I think it's we should look at all those three options so I am sure that um after we have our Friday meeting that we will have more discussion on this and I'll save it for um let's save these deep discussions on that when we have more information on how we can spend that money yeah and again I want to take advantage of the budget because it's a lot of budget you know the president put a hold on all grants yesterday I don't know if you saw that I think it happened last night yeah we're we're working with Congressman Bill rus' office to understand what that means there's still a lot of all is all but whether all will remain all remains to be seen so so it's on the CD all right so that's I think it's a great time for discussion because I I tell you I think he would look at this to say okay let's get smart with this money so I think that's that's I'm okay with that to make sure we get it right good commissioner waitman with thank you chair with that and to commissioner Marano what he's talking about I'd like to know whether or not if we have to be in the National flood insurance program for a house for a homeowner to qualify for that type of help or not I still when we brought it up during our legislative Workshop I I still would really like to understand more about the national flood insurance program while I'm seeing it benefits the county I am not convinced that being a part of that program is the best thing for our property owners and our home and business owners in our County uh based on the percentage rules of what's home or building is totaled or not versus what they're going to get on their insurance when they make a claim cost Etc I think it really handcuffs them so I really if we have a further discussion and really I'd like to understand this before next Hur this hurricane season if being a part of that program is is worth it or not for our our citizens in in in the long run so well we'll we'll get into that one too and um yes yeah actually we'll that'll be part and parcel for the February Workshop of some of the things we need to talk about it I think it is worthwhile and we'll we'll get into the reasons for that but we'll we'll have that conversation so the board can understand that better okay so we're going to keep on with the budget um but this is bubbling up some than for deeper discussion yes thank you for your very rigorous dialogue and conversation around our strategic priorities I think you gave us a lot to chew on and nugget through as we go through the budget process so thank you all right so now we before we get into the next bit of discussion which is around um taxation we wanted to highlight some of the work that's been accomplished to date and

what the expectation on work accomplishment throughout this fiscal year will look like for the New Roads rehabilitation services mstu that the board adopted um at the for fiscal year 25 all right so to date we're hovering around 30% execution but I hear that we're looking to fully execute the money allocated for this program for this year by quarter three which is kind of a big deal right that's pretty awesome so we were talking a little bit earlier in this board meeting about how this County does a good job of putting the money to work I think this is a great example of how we've been putting the money to work and so the next two slides are going to compare what were we able to accomplish with the mstu versus the old peas program that this mstu was replacing fireworks should come go off when you show this slide that was it I did it you're welcome all right so with that Joel's leaving that I'm out all right so and Jason feel free to save me at any point I'm here for it um but yes you want to come do these slides he's like he me let I'm GNA save you already you did fireworks and we're done oh what's this that's your clicker oh cool I don't know when you want um good morning members of the board um chairman starky uh thank you again for making this program happen um your leadership is really showing up out in the community uh we have um already executed on 30% of of the available funds um we're we're hitting all the districts we're doing all our different strategies we're we're working really hard out there to get the roads um rehabilitated um from reconditioning micros servicing Rejuvenation Mill and repaving um I I did just want to say we are ahead of schedule and on target I'm not committing to the by quarter three um we are that's a little ambitious I I just want to say we we're very much On Target we're we're really making a lot of progress we will execute fully um this year um and I just wanted to come up to thank you again for for getting this program across the finish line for us so I had to asked at my meeting yesterday um if the Hurricanes held you up and um because I know we had issues on the east side and west side I said well then they could could have been working on the middle um but I also know you had to fix some roads Bay Baye head and a few others so you the Hurricanes did not slow you down starting October 1st no um the we you are correct we have we have um six roads on mainly on the east side that we are we are working to fix um separate issue um we're working on those what has not stopped us at all moving full steam ahead on the road rehabilitation program so awesome right all right thank you such a big savings just to say one thing um it's created people with dirt roads and Roads that are not up to par even being paved wondering when because everybody's paying they're asking the question when's my road going to be paid when's my road and I'm getting that a lot only to reach out to Road and Bridge and they give me the right answers some

of those homes in those areas are reaching out for their home or roads to be paved they not even in the three-year plan well we have that in Odessa too so um that's everywhere and then I guess I would I would say that is uh that is you know I'll L I'll back it up remember when we first talked about the road mstu this is I don't know it's north of a billion south of a two billion dollar okay3 billion problem and so depend you know right now we've we've authorized funding at about 15 million so again divide 15 into three billion and that's how many years it'll it'll take but but that's okay you know right now Public Works has got their their feet on the ground again I've challenged them quarter three because I want to see those execution rates be solid so that way if citizens do want more and they want to increase priorities there's ways we can we can do that obiously remember we picked a lesser number for this yes we we we pick ENT level which is perfectly fine for a new program I think that's I think it's wise that's part of the problem well right but I but I mean still that's that's a wise way to to wait in and so we can continue to Wade further if if this board or a future board wants to do that but kudos to public works for doing it and really the two slides 37 roads at 78,000 per Lane Mile and go back to the one before and I'll use six roads 521 th000 per mile that's what we were doing with P because we were rebuilding roads essentially so we're we're getting ahead of the game so wish we done didn't build roads because they a lot of those would not pass nobody wanted to pay right we go through all that expense all that back yeah yeah and and remember too on the on the investment on the next slide um as we showed you when we were going through the um mstu presentations every dollar that you're investing now is extending the life of these roads yeah so you're making investment in the whole Road Network so I think everyone now has hope right Road and Bridge is doing a great job with this program and it they've been moving uh I know in my Des we got a fdot road which is County Road 52 that f C promised to pave they're in that process right now I think they're near the school coming back toward D City and all the way to the bypass section nice that's going to all get paid but that's out of this program that's the fdot C saying they were doing that road so all right thank you keep moving we've got three guests here that want to say something I think too so I I just want to say uh Mike Branford bringing Jason on was what a great move uh you know having him get all the things he gets done is amazing storm water projects Paving projects so thank you for the great work you're doing thanks sir I'd like to say one other thing we have is um I got a message and postmaster stepped in on my phone that I had somebody in the county basically with a threat to not see any more uh raises in taxes and all and eight years I've been on the board taxes have raised every year not because of us just the one time for the Shar

because all value of homes for that eight years everybody's home value increased which in turn they save save our homes they only pay 3% a year on that but the fact of it is I basically the postmaster actually cut that conversation off and said we're not accept that but I was for it not good okay all right so our next slide is um for board discussion around our millage rates so looking at we just talked about the roads mstu and what that was able to accomplish with the level of funding that the board adopted um but we do have other types of taxes out there is there any other type of tax we should be from um the administrative perspective doing a deeper dive doing some research um any direction or discussion around the parks Capital maintenance where we adopted an ordinance but we adopted zero Mills um fire MSU general fund so this is just open for any kind of discussion the board wants to have on these topics um I County Administrator were you about to say something no I was going to just Echo Amy sentiments this is just an open-ended conversation you know right now as it stands as we as we plan the budget the numbers that you see up there are where we're going to are where we're going to go and we're going to continue to do business as usual unless there are other other things that the board is interested in and to Amy's point this is not necessarily saying go do this but if you want us to explore something and bring some things back so the board can consider other means or methods of of funding certain operations we certainly can handle that um and commissioner Maran did you want to say something um yes thank you uh I was I was going to say you know as we look at the budget coming up I know there's a push keeping millage low which is good even cutting millage um sometimes a struggle what I don't want to see us do is go down these mstu cutting our millage back but bringing an mstu on now what we just saw with the paving it worked great get rid of Paving assessment programs we have that were not getting done not getting approved we're now doing something positive to get make some action happen but what I don't want to see us do is to take our County population at 91% funding all let's say your Parks coming up when you're letting now the 9% of the Cities not pay into that mstu because they're not going to pay into it but still use the parks so I want you to be very cautious when you push an mstu remember you're putting the burden on your county people at 91% and letting the city slide away if you want to line the cities up to go contribute to I'm also looking at that but I don't want to isolate the county people to pick up the burden um commissioner waitman thank you yeah so commission Mar On's point I'm all for an all-encompassing parks mstu and exploring that but with any Ms with mstu I think generally it'd be good to know how much money from the cities actually moov the needle or doesn't right so if we do an

mstu whether it's for whatever line of business how much of this you know what what's the city's what are we actually losing out on is it a DI Minimus amount overall or is it truly something significant I think that'd be good to know if we have an mstu my expectation is if the cities uh want to have a piece of whatever we're working on then they we need to come up with some level of interlocal agreement if this board does choose to go towards a path down an mstu depending on what that subject is but I would I I am interested to pick up on last year I I didn't like the structure of the parks maintenance MSU I didn't like the structure at all I still think to preserve the generational fixes and growth that we need to have in our Park system I still think we need to look at an all-encompassing MSU for multiple reasons one I think it protects the parks funding when times get bad because there have to take multiple public comments and hearings so folks can actually have time and it's not just a swift hand of the board to just ask the Park's budget right and that's what we've seen historically which I view in mstu as a almost a a level of of safety barrier and deliberate thinking of how we're going to handle our parks and we know Pasco is growing younger so the demand for Parks is a lot different than it was when Pasco had an older population so I'd be interested if we could explore and all en cassing mstu what it would mean based on what I discussed last year but then also understand what that Delta would be that we would lose from the cities um and if you know the cities wanted to participate in it how we could get them to participate in it right right I don't know if that'd be a mandatory thing but I'm sensitive to commissioner maran's point he has a good point I just like to see what roughly that number could could potentially be thank you maybe you to put a toll at all the roads coming into Pasco where we get paid for because there's a lot of people not just our cities but there is a lot of people from outside our County coming into our Parks cuz our parks are very nice and are getting nicer I mean the super Park's going to be huge so so so I have a do have a concern that we did zero on the parks uh maintenance fund last year um you know he Keith for the parks that we have now I think he needs 7 to8 million a year and he's getting 1 million so we are going to slide backwards like we did when those parot came from East Pasco in their little leak field and they said they were turning the power on and off with a 2 by an 8ft board 2x4 because they're getting electrocuted when they flipped the switch so um I don't want to go back to that and we're adding more Parks so we are going to have to come up with money for his maintenance fund we have to um it's a it's a life safety thing so I'm willing to look at your suggestion I have no idea the pros and cons um but I'm willing to look at it in order to arrive at some kind of solution where we get him another six to7 million a

year um and I I want to be conscious I have judge Crane and the public defender and I think Sarah's here and and the public the public what's the other one state attorney um and Bruce and I want to make sure they they have come here and they have an opportunity to speak so uh we're going to move kind of quickly but go ahead commissioner Mariana one last comment you know us five vote on the budget if we set up parks to have more money we control that we control it we have full control so we don't need an mstu that keeps the cities out of pain into the parks we can control it in the budget we tell the administrator here where it's going to go it goes you don't need to create another tax you just got to make sure you keep the millage where you need it to be to fund it if if if it takes a certain amount of votes to get somewhere I'm willing to look at whatever it takes to get there so and maybe your argument is going to win but you know this is America and we'll have that debate and hopefully we'll move forward so I'll bring a regular item back to to discuss pros and and cons of how we're doing things to mstu but you certainly don't we don't want to open up that super Park and then have to close it because it's dangerous yeah right we don't want to do that yeah but the fact of it is uh we a few years back we all approved uh Bond issues and we put it on the ballot and the citizens actually approved what we would have approved ourselves but the citizens voted those in at a very high number I mean approved except which was another discount on housing Homestead it did not pass in the county which is means I can tell you this we got the best citizens in the world and they understand what it takes to get things done so um ke I didn't know if you wanted to say anything because I'm going to bring up another mstu that I or or impact fee that I think we need to talk about and that's Public Safety but go ahead sir to commissioner Oakley's Point that's the case you know we'll get the options to put it up to the voters let the voters decide and there's that that possibility too and we'll bring all those ideas back but if we're going to increase the mstu I'd please ask you to have better security at our meetings um I've already been war on the next page um is the uh the um criminal courthouse and all these Capital expenses that are needed I person personally think it's a shame we didn't have a public safety impact fee going uh with all these new houses here which put strain on all these all these issues here and we could have been collecting money towards that and I think that's something that we need to look at um I've also talked to the sheriff you know about a public safety mstu um and I think one day we're going to need to get there but certainly I think the starting point for me is is some type of Public Safety or P um first responder whatever you want to call it um impact fee we got to start collecting money for that that

Courthouse that's been that's been a need for a long time so um and so I if you guys want to come up now and speak are you guys okay with the them coming up I think they came here never been acced being sh I'm Sean Crane I am the chief judge of uh penis and Pasco County six judicial circuit and proud graduate of Gulf High School um I stand before you today once again as you know uh talking about as as as Madam chairman has just indicated the need for a uh a criminal courthouse in the center part of our County you all know uh you've heard me before we were at the workshop before and I think um as as Madam chairman has just pointed out as um commissioner Oakley has pointed out we've kicked this can down the road long enough um it is a need in our County I will tell you that we have the worst ratio of uh courtrooms to judges in the State of Florida I will tell you that we are and depending upon who you talk to the third fastest or fourth fastest growing County which I don't need to explain to you all in the country with these people when when for instance when the sheriff comes before you and you know indicates all the pressures on them because of the increased growth I can tell you those people where do they go they come to the courthouse um when when all the other constitutionals come before you and ask for the and talk about the stressors placed upon them based upon the increase in our community uh population where do those people eventually wind up if you if you pass away and you have a will that needs to be probated or you you're having a dissolution of marriage or there's issues with children um I can go on and on civil disputes contract disputes all of those people wind up in the courthouse and what uh when that property was was purchased and and uh once again Madam chairperson you've nailed it when you said this has been going on a long time about 23 years I've read through notes where it was agreed that this was needed this this County and prior County Commissioners County commissions have gone forth and and paid for studies to say what does the county need as we come forward in the future and every one of those studies has indicated a central courthouse is a priority now when they used to rank them they would say that it's one a 1B with the jail or it's it's the number one priority then at the last go round they didn't rank him 1 two 3 four five but they did indicate we were at that the central Courthouse was a high priority and these are surveys that you all paid for and this is the information that Consultants that you hired are telling you these same Consultants are telling you things like the courthouse in the eastart of the county will not satisfy the requirements for a criminal courthouse and I can tell you that at some point in time as good a job as the sheriff does and the court security does over there there is going to be an issue and that issue is going to is not going to be pretty because the way the public the jurors and everybody interact with inmates and people uh

family members and stuff and just the design of the courthouse is is will not as I said will not satisfy the requirements for a criminal courthouse and that's by the County's own study has found that to be true um I think that there's uh you know the words that we heard used early on by I mean we're booming well we are booming and with that boom comes people with people comes come problems and we're talking about Community safety we're talking about a courthouse that would be dedicated for for criminal needs for the criminal courthouse and what that does is that extends the life of the courthouse on east side and west side and that extends those that life of those two cour houses exponentially and uh so so not only it it's fiscally respons responsible because it extends the life of those it also is a need in the center part of the county as I said I started reading notes from John Gallagher you know way back when when he said we purchased that land specifically for a jail and a courthouse that's why that land was purchased um very important just to put it in perspective a little bit uh west side of the county we have 13 judges nine courtrooms in the east side of the county we have nine judges with four and a half courtrooms people have the right to go in and have their their m is heard and have the right to appear before a judge in a courtroom and and unfortunately we cannot accommodate that these are um these are life safety issues these are safety issues for the members of our community I'm going to I'm going to you've all heard me uh talk about uh the importance of this courthouse uh before so I'm going to let if I can just defer for a little bit my time to uh both Bruce Bartlett our state attorney and Sarah Malo our public defender and then I may come back for some brief words after to them okay thank you don't good morning Mr Bart morning so speaking of of the other courthouse and it's kind of ironic that you this comes up this way this time but uh I was with Bernie and we were involved in discussions and actually plans were kind of formulated for what the courthouse might look like because the importance to tie tie the courthouse by a tunnel or a projected pathway that would be closed in that they could take in people in and out of jail which would save all this Transportation money evidence stock blocker and everything else is there in that in that same compound and uh but ironically it abruptly stopped even when funding was discussed right down to the amounts of money they were going to use but it would stopped because of jail expansion was necessary and it put it breaks to it that was it Courthouse bu done and they went ahead and did the jail expansion the jail expansion happened because much like what's happening now is crime is booming you look at the calls for Public Safety up 117% okay what that means the sheriff's working harder he's got to cover all

that that means that he's going to make arrests that they're going to need a courthouse to put those people in and they're going to need more prosecutors to handle putting them in there without the prosecutor part of this equation it doesn't work so it it's just all part of the it's like a it's all one big thing one triggers the other triggers and triggers and triggers we all do and Pasco is growing like crazy I've watched the crime rates come up here now no our went down yeah right well that's what I've been told all I've been doing is inviting people for killing that's pelis and uh very rarely had uh one this weekend just had one stabbing last night here it was I I got called I just want to make com I'm sure that your case loads for your prosecutors they're very stressed and our population growing as well and you all have been very kind to help us with the space issue with the Liberty building which now we've occupied because we have not only the criminal aspects of things we have child welfare legal services but we're with the new expansion with the Liberty building we're down to two offices zero places to put a clerk anywhere in the office like a secretary or that and then the same thing in in the DAT City side and it's it's that over there is going berserk with the the building and the homes and stuff it's going to bring all this in so all I'm saying and I don't want to you know know kind of repeat everybody thing we know we just have to figure out where we get $200 million take care of this though you know a three or four year time period it's going to take a lot of yeah getting ready and everything else but it does affect the public safety so we actually need 350 million right away state is a you know important component so whatever affects the cops affects me which affects her yeah and so and I don't like the idea of the judges and the jurors mixing with the criminals uh at East County Courthouse that's dangerous so good morning I'm Sarah moo your public defender thank you for your time and opportunity to uh support the judge and his mission to get us a central Courthouse you know every Mission needs a champion and he certainly is our champion on this um but logistically thinking about things I think you bring a good point as far as staffing issues and so if you're just running uh office you think about having a DAT city office in a Newport Richie office so you have to have supervisor levels on both of those office if you combine that you can and Bruce and I are in a similar position the county has grown I think 30 whatever percent everybody knows that right our FTE or full-time employee positions have not grown so we are trying to manage that population growth with the same amount of people that we've had before the population growth so one of the ways you can do things more efficient efficiently is to consolidate that and then you can reduce some of those levels of management and Direction even though you would have a larger group underneath that you could consolidate that

supervisor level so that's just one of the economic benefits of uh consolidating so what would we do with the E the courthouse on the east side then are you saying civil civil just okay civil so we'd still use it right not my problem okay so noncriminal but I do think that that I think the point of using those buildings then and reducing the criminal workload there is that then they are more sustainable because the Civil is growing as well so where are you going to put the Civil so you need that space as well well and this 202 Million number where's that coming from who came up with that number yeah that's the estimate that our facilities management department has has put on put on you know using just some uh what I will call rough order of magnitude estimates based on square footage right and if you think of the current situation you have inmates and so I have young attorneys that are in a courtroom and I think the Judge is accurate and this is a disaster waiting to happen the security and the Sheriff's Office does a wonderful job of ensuring that um but it really is a poor situation uh and it's complicated then to convey offers and to have conversations with your client when you have 12 people and a courtroom full of people and a judge all in that same space it just really isn't efficient and doesn't work very well so board members when you look down here at the funding mechanisms um you know we're going to have to have a a a a uh Mike we're going to have to have a deeper dive into this long-term capital discussion and we we need to discuss this and um have we seen where in the state Appropriations have helped build a courthouse I'm kind of yes and no what I would say to that is um they they have helped U to some extent but certainly not to any any great extent with the exception of some of the district courts of appeal for instance the in in St Pete now they're building the second district court of appeal The berie mccab District Courthouse um um based upon the hard work of the legislature and and and speaker sprows who but didn't that money get vetoed did he get was he able to put it back in I think that money got vetoed yeah oh but got back in okay yeah and it's and they're building it right now um and uh there's what's interesting is is there's a similar project kind of going on in pelis to build a civil Courthouse down there right off Overton Road because there's there's a need for it down there because they're going to move their civil courthouse so so they're kind of parallel things going on I will say that once again it's important uh economically to show that the two sides the two on each side of the county will be for civil they will accommodate uh for the for the foreseeable future any of the growth for in Civil Court it will accommodate any growth there as well um and once we have that Central uh Pasco couse built and um it the transportation issues will be kind of solved because it's literally from the front of the property to the back of the property but uh uh Bruce

Bartlett's correct when he says because of the jail expansion and because of the layout of the campus that's when we the courthouse got removed from the um uh got removed from the being attached to the jail and up to that point in time before it was seen that that the growth was such that there was going to need to be such a jail expansion we had uh the county The Bard of county commissioner that had given us the green light to go ahead with design and and uh kind of build plans and as you all are aware we spent uh quite a bit of money on that and uh and I appreciate the county commissioner's thought after that because uh the last email sent to our former Chief judge judge McGrady from a reporter was they just left the one of your workshops and the County Commission was trying to determine how to uh satisfy their promise to the their promise of a new courthouse because of this to the people of Pasco County because of the necessity of that Courthouse but but once we got removed how that was going to happen and unfortunately after that it just kind of uh died on the vine but it is a public safety issue I appreciate all the um thought process and all of the time and effort you've all expend to that I will and I've already indicated to commissioner Oakley I've comment I've i' I've uh cited his comment many times when he said at our last uh budget Workshop we kicked his can down the road too long we need to get something done so I'm looking for a a bard of County Commissioners hopefully who are have the have the foresight and the courage to put their names on the side of a building that'll serve this community for decades to come so quick question on the bonds um if we were to go to a bond I don't want what's our deadline to advertise just just wondering if we have to have a discussion quicker than are you referring to a general obligation bond that you put to the voters um I'm I don't know off hand if you know or je you know the answer that we could get back to the board on that I would imagine the next I'm not sure that you can put it on the mun so right you're probably probably a year out from MH in yeah you're probably our challenge with Appropriations is I think um the rule is now you have to have 50% for an appropriation so we're g okay well this is a discussion for us and I'm available for anytime if there's a workshop if there's special session called or whatever uh of you all I'm available I'm available personally to meet with any anybody who has any questions I I think it shows the importance of this uh the fact that you all were gracious enough to invite me here today to be able to talk to you all and I'm I'm incredibly grateful for that opportunity I'm incredibly grateful for the two people standing behind me if they're still there um standing behind me who took time out of their day to be here and really uh stress the importance of this for the people of our Community I am a per I am a member of the of the Pasco

County community so this is obviously and as you all know grew up here so this is near dear to my heart as as just a citizen of Pasco County this is certainly something we need and so um but I'm I'm at your disposal literally anything you need that I can help with that I can supply uh I am available uh we've already been meeting with uh with Mike Eric and Andrew about this and and trying to make sure we can we can put together the best uh uh package to present to you all that we could and I'm certainly willing to continue to do that and like I said I'm available to whatever you all need well thank you very much you certainly apprciate commission Marano judge hang on for a second so you know going way back when when they shut down the local jail right here I thought it was a very bad move to have to transport prisoners back and forth uh seen it work in the coros I agree it's not the right way to do it it take so much Manpower safety Etc I'd like to see you work with our staff to get this number down though uh we we definitely got to get that number down so look to keep as simple as you can well that's our plan I think you're absolutely right we want to be good stewards of the taxpayers money I'm in no this is in no way shape or form of Taj Mahal situation let's make sure we're very clear on that the only thing the only thing I stressed and I recommended was that we if that we that we build a shell out for 12 courtrooms if we're going to use eight for future development we just have that shell and we can then grow without and it's and it's much more cost effective um to just build those shells out which is kind of what they did at the community at the Criminal Justice complex down in pelis they just built out those shells until they were full and then eventually they had to actually build a separate Annex because they were too full but but uh but that would be my suggestion would be uh you know we stood at starky elementary and uh starky Elementary when we were standing there was already too small you guys had there had to be Bud an extra $10 million to build on to that by the time um you know plans that started they put a shovel on the ground to it open they had to build uh my understanding was a $10 million you talking about starky K8 yeah okay yeah so that's where we were right is that where we had our last Workshop meeting at yeah at the um at the at the cultural center c yeah that's what I may have misspoke about the name but but yeah I mean it was already too small so we need to kind of you know I I think be show good value and if nothing else just maybe build it out a little bit bigger but just a shell and no there's going to be nothing fancy uh we're not looking for anything fancy just just good Common Sense use of that money we'll get to work on do a little further 12 o' I know he keeps taking the mic what am I going to do I'm just kidding um so I I think that's a great approach we've got a great opportunity and um Senator Ed

Hooper Appropriations chair we've hired not only I think a a great set of lobbyists for the state on all three levels we've also got a federal lobbyist now I think it's part I think Now's the Time to put a good plan in place make it fiscally as tight as you can but efficient and available for growth and let's go try to work on it to get some funding because there's no way we can take that number down but if we bring that number down and work together on it we can work on funding and put a plan together I think and I appreciate that I'm sorry for interrupting before maybe it's forced to have it from my old job from my job uh where I where I want to clarify something um and I so I apologize for that uh commissioner you and I have talked about this and it may come of no surprise to anyone here that last time I walked up on Senator Hooper he looked at me and he said you're going to ask me for money aren't you and I said bet I am so I'm leaving no stone I'm leaving no stone unturned like I said before I'm like a bad Penny you all aren't going to get rid of me anytime soon well this this board and the one just previously before this one um we have we have stopped kicking that can and we've taken some hard votes here p is one of them and there's going to be good results from that um and so I feel confident that we will find a solution and um thank you so much and we'll we'll work on that that's my pledge thank you thank you all so much for that like set I'm available for whatever you need all right thank you so much everybody care God bless yes sir so um did you have anything else I kind of not you her no ma'am it's just our conclusion and wrapup yeah so it' just be a conclusion and wrap-up slide so I mean pretty much I kind of jumped ahead to your next page so that's okay and we'll be back there was a couple regular items that percolated up as part of this discussion so we'll be back and we'll definitely be back in February so without further Ado thank you all so much for your time for your thoughtful discussion and your input going into our 26 budget and we'll see you guys soon Madam chair great just one quick thing one of the things we talked about yesterday was the amount of people that are looking for tax abatements I think we need to get some numbers together next time we meet that we'll have those together to kind of look at because a lot of people are filing to get a break yeah as Amy said those those that period ends March uh but we are we will be talking to the property appraisers we uh property appraiser to to see what that impact is and whether it's uh material or not but it's a concern all right so um we'll take a break for five minutes while they load the uh cameras in here for photos and I I think Joanna's gone to get them to get set up and um so come come back in just a few minutes and we'll take our group photo are you recessing though yeah we're recessed thank you am [Music]

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