4.7.26 Pasco County Board of County Commissioner Meeting (Morning Session)

All right. I love that note. One around the hole. Yeah, this is too bad. Everyone It's going to be good. All right. How you doing, Chuck? Chuck. How you doing? afternoon Oh, yeah, we talked. Did he ever respond to you? Um, I'll try him again. He was representing the inside stuff you want to do with him. He says Who do you represent? I represent Now, this is all wrong. He says Is it? All right, good. Yeah, he's like a thousand people strong, right? I don't know. Yeah, I know he's So, do you remember trying to book him? I don't know. You got to give some names. I love it. All right. All right. So, this is the first time So,

Um, you're going to Morning, Jack. You're going to speak with If you'd like. Oh, he did. Yeah, so So, yeah. You have to call him. Yeah. I do. I think I think Well, it's not on the board, so that's why Which one is it? Or no. He didn't. All right, I'll call him. What number is it? Okay, nothing. And um And then lastly, and Lisa This This vehicle was down there, so I'm assuming it's in his office. Which one is that? Um, getting there. Oh, it's room 59. 19 Which one is it? 19. C19. Program authorization. 59 Looks realistic. Crazy. Huh? It's crazy. Well, where's Catherine? I don't know where Catherine

Where is Catherine? Yeah. Where's Mike? Where's Catherine? Where's Mike? Yes. I think they all have air tags. Exactly. Actually, no. That was your car I parked next to. It was Catherine. Yes. All right, it's channel one. I'm going to get this Should I bang the camera right now? How many downstairs do you have? I'm good. I just want you to come home. Or text you. Can you see me as project manager at our You have to block

morning meeting. Oh, at work when the employees see me? The mechanic was talking to Brad. I walk up, he goes, "I got to go back to work now." We're going to voice command when I'm walking around the Costco with you. Oh, they know you're going to suck them in. Yeah. No. All right, we can officially start. No, I can't.

Focus now. Good morning. Good morning. I would like to call to order the Pasco County Board of Commissioners 10:00 meeting of April 7th, 2026. At this time, silence all electronic devices and mute your phones. Please rise for the invocation and pledge of allegiance. Good morning, honorable commission. Anthony Shipe, chaplain for Pasco County Fire Rescue. I I hope that your Eastern Passover celebrations were enjoyable, time with family, and now it's time to give an invocation. Great almighty Father, we thank you for this honorable commission, their leadership in our county. Today, we bless our conservationists, our public safety telecommunicators, our community developers, and people who handle animals, and thank you for their services. We ask that you'll conduct help us conduct wisdom in our public doings today. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. District 1, Commissioner Oakley. Here. District 2, Commissioner Whitman.

Present. District 3, Commissioner Starkey. District 4, Commissioner Yeager? Here. District 5, Chairman Mariano? Here. Now is the time for public comment. Citizens are given an opportunity to comment on any current or future agenda item coming before the board and on other business on the board's purview. Today's public comment will be handled as follows. First, we'll take public comment from those who are here in person. Then, we'll take public comment from those who have pre-registered for an online link and currently on queue. We request that when you address the board, comments are not directed personally at a commissioner or any member, but rather directed at the issues. This provides a mutual respect between the board members and the public. After stating your name and address for the clerk, a 3-minute timer will be activated and a green light will be shown at the podium. After 2 minutes, a yellow light will indicate you have 1 minute left. When your time is up, a red light will be displayed. Three beeps will sound and you should close your comments. Online participants will be disconnected automatically when their time is up. Madam Clerk, do we have anyone signed up for public comment? Yes, we do. Would Lance Lee please come to the podium? Good morning. Good morning, commissioners, and thank you for the opportunity to speak today. Your name and address, please. My name is Lance Lee. I serve as the Vice President of Operations at Rebuilding Together Greater Florida. Our address is 30114 Northwest Highway, Tampa, Florida. Thank you. Uh we're a nonprofit organization dedicated to keeping families safe, healthy, and housed by providing critical home repairs, disaster recovery, and disaster readiness services to low-income homeowners, seniors, veterans, and also people with disabilities. Many Pasco residents are still struggling in the aftermath of hurricanes Milton and Helene. Too many homeowners simply don't have the resources to recover on their own. And some are still living with roof damage, unsafe electrical issues, broken windows, or other storm-related hazards. Thanks to a disaster recovery grant from the American Red Cross, Rebuilding Together Greater Florida now has dedicated funding specifically for Pasco homeowners who were impacted by these storms. What I want to emphasize, all repairs are provided at absolutely no cost to the homeowner. If a resident owns and occupies their home, and they still have unmet repair needs from Hurricanes Milton or Helene, we can help. Our team handles everything: assessments, contractors, permitting, and project management. So, homeowners

do not have to navigate the recovery process alone. Every repair we complete keeps a Pasco County family safely in their home and strengthens long-term community resilience. On behalf of Rebuilding Together Greater Florida, I want to thank you for your leadership and for helping us connect with the homeowners who need the support. We look forward to working together to rebuild to to rebuild, recover, and keep Pasco families safe. And as I said, from this grant, we have $3 million from the Red Cross, and we are struggling with applicants in this specific community. Uh we have a application process. You can go to our website at rtgfl.org. But we aren't getting many families from Pasco. Um and like I said, it's a considerable amount of funds. Uh uh the range of home repairs can range anywhere from $25,000 up to $65,000. Roofs, anything involving the envelope of the home. So, our thought was that we could come here and hopefully you guy you all could help us spread the word that we have these funds, and so we can uh repair more homes in Pasco community. Thank you. Please give your information to the county administrator so we can reach out to you and we'll we'll make some contacts, but I'm sure I not I know there's some help out there we can use. So, thank you for having

Thank you. Next. Lisa Mizell, please come up to the podium. We have two. Morning. My name is Lisa Mizell. I currently reside at 31137 St. Joe Road in Dade City. I'm the director of treasury management sales for Florida for Republic Bank. I'm actually coming before you all today in regards to an issue that's been going on in the community, not necessarily an agenda item. One of our neighbors have had seven cattle be killed by a pack of wild dogs. There's two separate packs. Two of the calves were pregnant and she's lost four just in March. Her neighbor has had a cat killed. All of this has been caught on camera. There has been several news stories done by news channel channel 13, some other news stations. It's been all over social media. And unfortunately, the county has not reached out to Ms. Huber. Unfortunately, she does have six donkeys, but with a pack of dogs, the donkeys are not going to protect cattle that like that. They have just recently last week ripped off an ear of one of her cattle that is also pregnant, so that calf may not make it. Um This is thousands of dollars for these cattle ranchers and something needs to be done. Animal services has been called. It's been directed that they're the ones that need to deal with it. They've gone out and surveyed the area, but they've not been able to capture any of these dogs. So, my ask is that the county do something more and ask that these dogs be captured and humanely euthanized because at this point it's a matter of time before it's an adult or someone's child. I own a farm. I have horses. I have many friends who own farms and have horses and cattle and it's happening on Trilby, it's happening on Powerline and Christian Road. So, it's very well public out there if you guys just spend a little bit of time researching it. It's been an ongoing issue for months. So, I just want to be on public record that you all are aware of this issue because if it does come down to a child or a human one day, it's it's going to be a problem. So, my ask is that this is prevented and that these wild dogs We're not sure if they're wild or not. They're not chipped. Um animal services came and picked up one that was deceased, but we're not sure if someone owns the dogs, but they really just need to be humanely dealt with before more ranchers lose their cattle and someone loses a life at this point. So, that is my ask of the county. Also, if you could, I'd like you to have you to talk to Kathy Pearson. I think Fish and Wildlife might be the appropriate agency for the state to help us out. I don't think Animal Control's set up to cover wild dogs, but we'd love to help coordinate that for

to several times and she's just not able to get the help to trap them, so Uh get me the information. I'll help I'll help help and reach out for you, too. Okay. And who Uh Kathy Pearson's right there. Anyone else here from the public that hasn't signed up that would like to address the board? I don't see anyone here. Anyone online?

Thank you very much, Congressman. We greatly appreciate you being here. And Congressman, Congressman, if you could, Congressman, Yes. We have a resolution, too. If you don't mind, we're going to read that, then we'll do a picture with everything together. Is that okay? Very good. Thank you. All righty. Resolution number CAO 26-180, a resolution by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, declaring the week of April 6th through the 10th, 2026, as National Community Development Week in Pasco County. Whereas, Pasco County communities serve as the cornerstone of a high quality of life for its residents, and Pasco County's Community Development Department has demonstrated a dedication to homeless initiatives and the revitalization of neighborhoods and expanding affordable housing opportunities. And whereas, the week of April 6th through the 10th, 2026, has been designated as National Community Development Week by the National Association of Counties and the National Community Development Association to celebrate the Community Development Block Grant, the CDBG program, and the Home Investment Partnerships, the HOME program. And whereas, in 1974, Congress enacted the Housing and Community Development Act, making this the 52nd year of the CDBG program. And whereas, the CDBG program and the HOME program provide annual funding and flexibility to local communities to provide decent, safe, and affordable housing and a suitable living environment for economic opportunities to low- and moderate-income citizens. And whereas, over the past 10 years, our community has received a total of 37 million, 113,165 dollars in CDBG funds and 14,1479,074 dollars in HOME funds from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. And whereas a grant of over 1,469,927 dollars utilizing Community Development Block Grant funding was used in partnership with the Opioid Treatment and Recovery Fund and HHS Certified Community Behavioral Health Center funds to create the first Behavioral Urgent Care Center in the state of Florida. And whereas this past February the Behavioral Urgent Care Center received the 2026 Audrey Nelson Achievement Award for Community Development from the National Community Development Association as an exemplary and innovative Community Development Block Grant project. And whereas in addition to this award there were several significant accomplishments reported for this past year. CDBG funds supported the acquisition of 70 existing units of housing that will remain affordable for 30 years. CDBG assisted with the preservation of affordable housing for 73 households through owner-occupied rehabilitation. 40 units of a affordable housing were created and 100% of funds expended benefited low to moderate income households. Now therefore be it resolved by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco

County, Florida that said board hereby declares the week of April 6th through the 10th, 2026 as National Community Development Week in Pasco County. Done and resolved in regular session with a quorum present and voting this 7th day of April, 2026.

Move approval. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Commissioner Yaeger, thank you for doing this resolution. If you would like to We can and maybe do a picture with everybody. Okay. I'm going to say just say your name. Sure, Kathy. Kathy Pearson, assistant county administrator, public services. First of all, thank you, Congressman Bill I have been a big champion always, always, always for Pasco County. And thank you to the team behind me. Community development team. You have no idea what they go through every single day monitoring, making sure we're in compliance, making sure the money's being spent. Kudos to you all. You're a phenomenal, phenomenal team. I couldn't do it without Paula Baracaldo, director of support services, also our chair of our opioid opioid money paid for a lot of this. And guys, this was your idea. I remember two of the commissioners came to me and said, "We would like to see Do you ever think about having a walk-in clinic?"

And Sheriff Nocco, he was involved when we had this meeting.

this this was an idea you all came and this team ran with it. So, phenomenal. But, I would like to introduce Tracy Calley with our BayCare. She really put this thing together for our urgent health care clinic. And Tracy, if you want to just come up and maybe give them some numbers, that would be great. Good morning. How are you Good to see everybody again. Um we are just grateful for Congressman Bill I have to be here for the county to be so forward-thinking, so innovative. You know, BayCare is in five counties and this is the only county that kind of took that leap of faith as soon as the opioid dollars were available and partnering with CDBG, you know, a a true partnership between our government and our health care to create something that has not existed in this state up till now. Um you heard the numbers. We said we would serve 400 in our first year. We exceeded that by um I think our total was 1,700. You know, we opened last February. So, it tells you there's a need. People want to walk in and get services when they're ready for mental health or addiction. The exciting news I want to share with you all today is the timing of this couldn't be any better because um because of some opioid funding, we've been able to open a second behavioral health urgent care center. We opened today in Dade City, right down the street. So, today is our first day. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Commissioners. We want to say that City Week is Mary Perry. I'm I'm director of community development. City Week is not just about celebrating the projects, but it's celebrating the people as Kathy said behind me, but also the partnerships. The partnerships that we have internally and externally with some of them here. We want to thank them all. Especially we want to say thank you who they do not get a lot of thanks, but to the county attorney's office. Cuz without them, they make sure that we are doing everything following every regulation and we do want to say thank you to them and thank you to you for supporting us and having faith in us to carry the projects forward. So, thank you to everybody. I wanted to say one thing that just I'm not sure if the Congressman knows, but a couple years ago when we won the award before, I was up in DC then. Because AmSkills also was one of five programs nationally to win a CDBG award. So, we were up there. Um Yeah, so very grateful for this funding. I know it might be in jeopardy and so we hope that We did get yesterday. We did get our allocation yesterday. So, at least for the next year Yeah. I keep breathing. Yeah, so we're good. My committee in Washington that that it could be in jeopardy. Yes, and we want to thank the Congressman for supporting our funding every year. Yeah. Yes.

Thank you. in our community. but nationwide. And for people to have access to mental health, there's nothing like it. It will save so many lives. So, we appreciate all of you. It is an honor to represent someone. We'll continue to fight for those funds. And and if you want any of them or us to come up when you have the hearings on it,

Absolutely.

we can be a model for the country. Yeah. So, we appreciate all of you. Can we take a picture? Commissioner you want to get up for the picture?

I just want to say first of all, I am I am honored to present you guys this this resolution. Just to highlight all of your hard work and your dedication. Kathy Pearson and Congressman Bilirakis know how near and dear this work is to my to my heart. And I just want to thank you guys. I am I am so proud of the of the people we have in place to produce these projects and how we really think about and Congressman Bilirakis, you're on the front lines and and you are always fighting for our under under served and our veterans and and everything. And I'm just really proud of of our our our mental health, our Pasco Hope, so many things that we are just leading leading the country in. So, I just want to say thank you to all of you and um I have something to give to you. So. Thank you. We also want to make sure that everyone knows to come out Thursday night to our CD Week event at Lake Lisa. That's another award-winning project that we will be out there from 5:00 to 7:00. Um some of our vendor partners will be out there kind of celebrating and talking about the services that they provide to the county. Hey, why don't you come up here? We'll do a picture from here. Thank you, sir. Thanks, guys. Perfect. Rock and roll. Thanks, guys. All right, thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. All right, now we're going to RS1. Okay, do we have anybody here for the Water Conservation Month in Pasco County? The month of April? Please come forward, yeah. All righty. Resolution number CAO 26-177, a resolution by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, declaring the month of April 2026 as water conservation month in Pasco County. Whereas safe, clean, and sustainable water resources are essential to Pasco County citizens, visitors, the environment, and the account economy. And whereas although Pasco County has a limited supply of fresh water in our underground aquifer, lakes, and rivers, the county's population and need for water resources continues to increase. And whereas droughts and water shortages serve as a reminder that Florida's water resources, no matter how diverse, are finite. And whereas Florida has established the encouragement and promotion of water conservation and reuse as state objectives in chapter 373 and 403 Florida statutes. And whereas every business, industry, school, and citizen can make a difference when it comes to conserving water, thus promoting a healthy economy and community. And whereas the state of Florida, water management districts, Tampa Bay Water and its member governments, UF/IFAS Extension Pasco County, and the Florida Governmental Utility Authority are working with other community supporters

to increase awareness about the importance of water conservation. And whereas to to preserve potable water resources, Pasco County treats wastewater to produce high-quality reclaimed water, stores nearly 700 million gallons in reservoirs and tanks, and delivers approximately 25 million gallons per day of reclaimed water to about 41,000 residences and to the variety of other customers and locations. Whereas the state of Florida and the Southwest Florida Water Management District and Pasco County have previously dedicated April, typically a dry month when potable water demands are most acute, as Florida Water's Conservation Month to encourage citizens to help preserve Florida's precious water resources. And whereas, the continued support of April as Florida's Water Conservation Month reinforces conservation messages, ordinances, and efforts put forth by the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners in its support and encouragement of conservation measures. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, that said Board hereby declares the month of April 2026 as Water Conservation Month in Pasco County and calls upon each citizen to help protect this precious precious shared resource. Done and resolved in regular session with a quorum present and voting the 7th day of April 2026. Move approval. Second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. And Senator Mike, I see April's with the mic. Come on up. No ma'am. Maybe not. Good morning, Chairman Mike, members of the Board. For the record, I'm Sandra Anderson and I have the blessing of being the director for customer information and services for Pasco County Utilities. And um you can see from the variety of people we have here, it takes more than just Pasco County Utilities to enforce water conservation. The programs you guys have funded over the years and supported, you rally around, you point things out to us. Um you're willing to ask for help uh when you have any issues and you're willing to send people our way. Working together, we can make a difference for the Pasco County and the water conservation. Now, whoever's praying for or doing the rain dancing for the rain, thank you. Yeah, thank you. It took me extra long to get to work today and I loved every long minute of it. So, we do need that. I would like to just uh for a minute uh pass it over to Phoenix McKinney. She is our water conservation coordinator who oversees all the water conservation programs in our department. And Connor, who is a new add, thanks to the Board uh to our water conservation team. Thank you, Phoenix. You can stay up here. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and board members. Phoenix McKinney, water conservation coordinator for Pasco County Utilities. It's a pleasure for me to be here with you again to thank you so much for your ongoing support for

water conservation. As you know, it is an ongoing issue and we're in uh an extreme drought, so it's extremely important right now. Um Amber did ask me to make a couple of comments about our programs. We do have a number of programs to help uh yourselves and to help uh our customers throughout the area. Uh we do provide rebates through our water provider, uh Tampa Bay Water. Uh those go to businesses, those are available to private individuals. Uh we have some customized rebates, we have toilet rebates, and we have rebates to assist with uh efficient irrigation. Uh we're available to assist our customers with some uh site visits to assist them with making changes to their irrigation schedules to help them reduce their irrigation. Uh we're available to try to assist them in looking at their water use patterns and making recommendations for how they can reduce their use. And a number of other things just to ensure that uh our customers have ongoing access to information and assistance to make sure they're using their water as efficiently as possible. Again, we really appreciate your support as well. Thank you so much. Right. Okay. Amber, do you want to say anything? Thank you so much, commission, for focusing on this every year. Uh as the others have stated, we are in a phase three water shortage order currently. Um and with your efforts, with the conservation efforts, and the little bit of rain that we do receive, we are able to increase our water resources to get us through this dry time. But thank you so much for your continued efforts in focusing on your communities and letting them know about the uh the different water conservation um uh devices and technologies that are available currently. Thank you. All right, thank Tampa Bay Water? Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the board. I'm Amelia Brown with Tampa Bay Water and I work with uh mostly everyone here on water conservation um throughout the year and we're really grateful for the partnership um of working together and the dedication that Pasco's shown to water conservation. Of course, it's really important during times of drought, but it's really a long-term strategy for the sustainability of our region and balancing our water supplies with water demands. We're grateful for the adoption of the proclamation and look forward to the years ahead. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Oakley, you want to go for pictures, sir? Um I'd like to thank each and every one for your part in conserving water. It's very, very important. Uh I've been a part of uh since '07 to '10, I was a past chair of of Swiftmud and been a part of that and uh continued being a part of conserving

water in Pasco County for many, many years and now I'm a past pres- past chairman of Tampa Bay Water and still on that board. But all the efforts done by Pasco County, Pinellas County, and Hillsborough County all work together to make sure we have water for each and every one of us and our citizens in these three counties. Um even when it's a dry season, we still have water. I hate the fact that people say, "Oh, we're out of water. We're out of water." And it it's real dry and it gets real low, but I'm telling you it comes back very quickly like the rain we got God sent us yesterday, was very much of a blessing to all of our our counties and our citizens. And the fact of it is, people don't realize when you you change from a two-day watering cycle to a one-day because it's getting worse and it's drier, you're saving 60 million gallons a day because of taking that one day off. That one day of watering off. Very, very important. And we still have many ways to provide water through desal and through the reservoir that we have that holds 15 billion gallons uh of water. It's amazing that the three counties and we use roughly 200 million gallons a day. The fact of it is, we can put in in our system and into the reservoir to hold for the next day cuz we use 200 million we can put 200 million back in that reservoir. When we get the rainfall that we have yesterday and today that's coming, we actually are going to be pulling that water and putting that reservoir and rebuilding the reservoir and also we provide water on out in the future. There's a lot of plans about water that a lot of people don't understand cuz they think we're out of water at times. We're not out of water, but we're very cautious and very It's a very precious element that we need for life and we're going to make it the best effort to make sure that's the right thing and to preserve that for all of all the citizens. So, but thank you for each and every one of you that I'll go down and take a picture if y'all stay up here. Very good. Give me a line.

Notes, we'll get to RS2. Is Randy Bentley here? While he's walking up, you know, we keep we I only water one day a week for most of the year and in the rainy season we and I have 3 acres. We turn off the sprinklers in the rainy season, so you really don't have to water twice. Already, we have RS2, resolution number CA026-178. A resolution by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida recognizing Randy Bentley as the 2025 Pasco County winner of the Tampa Bay Community Water Wise Award. Whereas, the Tampa Bay Community Water Wise Awards program recognizes residential, commercial, and government landscapes in Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas counties that excel in water conservation and environmental protection. And whereas, water wise landscapes benefit homeowners and the environment by improving drought resistance, reducing water and maintenance, and protecting the environment. And whereas, safe, clean, and sustainable water resources are essential to Pasco County citizens, visitors, the environment, and the economy. And whereas, Tampa Bay Water Wise is a regional water conservation program offered by Tampa Bay Water, its participating utilities, and the Southwest Florida Management District. And whereas, this program endeavors to identify examples of outstanding Florida Friendly Water Wise Landscaping in order to promote these principles in the community. And whereas, the support of the annual Tampa Bay Community Water Wise Award reinforces the importance of conserving water and making our community a more beautiful and better place to live. And whereas, Tampa Bay Water facilitates the annual Tampa Bay Community Water Wise Award program to recognize individuals and businesses committed to water conservation and environmental protection through utilization of the best, most attractive, Florida Friendly landscaping, as well as irrigation systems or techniques that minimize water waste. And whereas, the UF/IFAS Extension Pasco County Florida Friendly Landscaping Program serves the Tampa Bay Community Water Wise Award program by providing the judging panel that visits each applicant in Pasco County and selecting an annual winner. And whereas, the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners support the Water Wise Awards and encourage water conservation measures within Pasco County and regionally. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, that said Board hereby recognizes Randy Bentley of Dade City as the 2025 Tampa Bay Community Water Wise Award winner for Pasco County and calls upon all Pasco County citizens to help make their landscapes Florida Friendly and Water Wise in the interest of water conservation. Done and resolved in regular session with a quorum present and voting the 7th day of April 2026. Move approval. Second. All in favor say

aye. Aye. Aye. Mr. Oakley. Yep. Welcome. Thank you. We we certainly appreciate everything that you've done and won this award and uh maybe you can tell us what you went through.

Well, it looks like it's getting pretty heavy over here before you. It sounds heavy. Uh good morning. My name is Kate Kasten and I'm the program manager for the Florida Friendly Landscaping Program at the University of Florida IFAS Extension Pasco County office. And uh with me is Amelia Brown, Tampa Bay Water. So, Tampa Bay Water really facilitates this award and they work um in partnership with the Florida Friendly Landscaping uh programs in each of the member counties to find landscapes that are water-wise and Florida friendly. Uh Mr. Bentley applied for 2025 uh and he won, right? So, um it's a scoring rubric that we work off of. Um Mr. Bentley has um he has a an older property, right? That shows that it is possible to have St. Augustine grass unirrigated, right?

Not everybody can have that, right? But but but the soils are right where he is um and his yard was a delight. And so, congratulations. Thank you. Uh good morning. Amelia Brown again. Um congratulations. We're really excited to participate in honoring you for the great work that you've done on your landscape exemplifying what we'd like to see more landscapes in this region look like that use only the water they need, have minimal fertilizer, minimal runoff, and also support pollinators. That's what it is to be Florida friendly, and we run this program to exemplify the best landscapes that embody all of those principles. Congratulations, and keep up the great work. Going to say something because all of us want to know how you did this, and uh the effort it took to get it to where it is today. Well, I actually It all started with my my past wife. She started 30 years ago on her landscaping effort, and you know, I was her muscle. She was With the brains? Well, I understand. Yes, sir. Uh we were always uh conscious of water, you know, water conservation. So, we put in a lot of drip irrigation throughout the property. Planted, you know, water-friendly plants. And it just over 30 years, you know, it's it's kind of grown into this award. I'd like to thank everyone that's involved with the the contest and the program, and just making everyone, you know, conscious of water conservation is important, you know, as more people move into our our area, the importance of being water-wise will become even greater. Thank you for Congratulations. Uh can we all go down, or are you going to stand up here and tell us uh

we're trying to go through these quickly. I'll swap with you.

Classics. I'll move to RS3. Already, if we can have the public safety telecommunicators come to the podium, please. Okay, resolution RS3. Resolution number CAO26-179. A resolution by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, declaring the week of April 12th through the 18th, 2026, as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week in Pasco County. Whereas, in 1991, the US Congress designated the second week of April as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week to recognize Public Safety Telecommunicators personnel and their crucial role in the protection of life and property. And whereas, dedicated emergency services telecommunicators serve the citizens of Pasco County 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by answering their requests for services and dispatching the appropriate assistance as quickly as possible. And whereas, emergency service telecommunicators work to improve the emergency response capabilities of these communication systems through their leadership and participation in training programs offered to advance these systems. And whereas, emergency services telecommunicators are the first and most critical contact our citizens have with emergency services and are a vital link between those who seek emergency assistance and the emergency personnel who are dispatched to the location to administer the required aid. And whereas, the work of the emergency services telecommunicators perform goes far beyond simply relaying information between the public and first responders. And whereas, emergency services telecommunicators have contributed substantially to the apprehension of criminals, suppression of fires, and the treatment of patients. And whereas, each emergency services telecommunicator has exhibited compassion, understanding, and professionalism during the performance of their job. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, that said Board hereby declares the week of April 12th through the 18th, 2026, as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week in Pasco County in honor of the men and women whose diligence and professionalism keep our county first responders and citizens safe. Done and resolved in regular session with a quorum present and voting this 7th day of April, 2026. Move to approve. Second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Mr. Starkey. Um I'm going to speak for the board this morning because we're try we have a lot of resolutions, so we're going quickly. Um I just want to thank all of you for what I think is a very tough job. And really, when you think about it, you guys are the front line. You're the first person that someone talks to when they're in a crisis. So, we thank you for your professionalism and your dedication to to our citizens. And um we're just grateful for everything that

you do. And we'd love to have you speak. Thank you. Um Mr. Chairman, first of all, thank you very much for taking the time to recognize our people. These are the true behind-the-scenes heroes head set heroes. Um they're often forgotten because they're out of the public view. Yeah. Um behind the scenes. And most And I didn't either until I came in there and realized how much actually goes on in there and what they do every day and what they go through. So, um taking the time to recognize them is huge. Um I'd also like to just take a moment and talk about this past year, some of the successes we've had um as a result of our Mr. Carballa, the board, everybody supporting our efforts um this past year. Um we are one of very few counties nationwide to become 100% consolidated. That means every police, fire, and emergency system within our county is all unified under one system. That's very rare. I'm going to cut you. Any major incident, if you look at nationwide, the number one failure is always communication. Right? We we've bridged that gap. Here in Pasco County, we're leading the way in that. Um also, to ensure the safety of our citizens and our first responders, we also opened up a second dispatch center full-time, 24/7 here in Dade City. Opened up January 12th. Um it's fully operational. I invite you guys to come by, take a tour, whenever you wish. Um that provides redundancy. And if uh one set one center goes down, the other center is fully operational running. We shouldn't have any interruptions. So, uh we continue Pasco County to lead the way um as you know, we put forward. So, um again, thank you to my crew and everybody and thank you for everybody recognizing us. I would like to point out we have one special guest here, Anya. She's been a telecommunicator for us in Pasco County for 29 years. Most don't make it that long. You know, it's a tough job. So, I just she was here today and I figured I'd mention that. So, thank you all. Okay, I'll come down And the next resolution RS5, National Animal Control Week. Okay, resolution RS5, resolution number CA026-176. A resolution by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, declaring the week of April 12th through the 18th, 2026, as National Animal Control Week in Pasco County. Whereas, National Animal Control Week is celebrated each year to recognize the invaluable contributions that animal control officers make to the people and animals in our communities. And whereas animal control officers serve a vital role in protecting public safety, promoting animal welfare, and strengthening the bond between the people and animals in Pasco County. And whereas these professionals perform essential duties including responding to emergency calls, rescuing injured and neglected animals, enforcing local

animal ordinances, investigating cruelty and neglect cases, and providing humane education and community outreach. And whereas animal control officers routinely face challenging and unpredictable situations including dangerous environments and emotionally difficult circumstances while demonstrating professionalism, courage, and compassion. And whereas their work supports public health initiatives such as rabies prevention, disaster response, ensuring safer neighborhoods, and improved quality of life for both residents and animals. And whereas animal control officers collaborate with law enforcement, emergency medical services, fire departments, veterinary professionals, animal welfare organizations, and community partners to deliver comprehensive community focused services. Now therefore be it resolved by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida that said board hereby declares the week of April 12th through the 18th, 2026 as National Animal Control Week in Pasco County and encourages residents to honor and celebrate the exemplary service and dedication of the animal control officers at Pasco County Animal Services and in our community. Done and resolved in regular session with a quorum present and voting the 7th day of April 2026.

Move approval. Second. All in favor say I. I.

I. Ms. Yeager. You always beat me to it, Commissioner Oakley. Well, first of all, um I am honored to recognize you for all that you guys do. I want to give you I just want to shoot out some numbers for everybody. Um they had 566 calls for service last year, and they saved 2,558 lives, which I'm an animal lover, and I'm I'm so thankful for that. Um some of the services you guys have are pet adoptions, animal control and public safety response, and I'll expand on that because we had a call there were 22 dogs in Moon Lake, and you guys came out, and apparently you only got 21, and one ran away. I admit I got a call, and you guys immediately went back out and got the straggler, and um I'm just very thankful for that. You do pet licensing, vaccines, uh your outreach in the community is amazing. You're always doing like food drives and things like that. Um lost and found pet assistance, donation and volunteer opportunities. I've toured your facility. I am so impressed by everything, how organized everything is, how much love and attention go to the animals, and how your staff is so friendly. Um you guys have had everything there. I've seen birds and all sorts of things, and it's just I I love going there. It just brings a smile to my face. I love bringing the dogs out and playing with them. Um my husband doesn't like when I go there cuz he's afraid I'm going to bring somebody home, but um I just want to thank you guys for everything you do in the community. So. Would you like to say something? Yes, uh Gary Herrero, uh director of Pasco County Animal Services. Good morning, and thank you, Mr. Chairman and Commissioners, for recognizing our men and women of animal control who are working tirelessly day and night, weekends, and often dealing with difficult and and heartbreaking calls, and they do it every day for for the passion that they chose to be their their career. So, this means a lot to them. A lot A lot of these guys are choosing that animal welfare as a career for them with three of our officers behind me with over 20 years of experience each. So, this recognition means a lot to us, and thank you for your support. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Here you go. If you guys would come forward, we'll do a picture. And we're we're hoping one day you'll get that new building. I keep advocating for it. RS6 will be next resolution, National Apprentice Week. Do we have representatives for that? Wait, do you find Please come to the podium. Yeah, that's right. Do we have anyone here for the Apprenticeship Week? If we don't, I'm going to read it by title only. Let's bring Let's bring David Engel up. The resolution for National Apprentice Week. RS6, resolution number CA026-181. A resolution by the Board of County

Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, declaring the week of April 26, 2026 through May 2, 2026 as National Apprenticeship Week in Pasco County. Whereas, National Apprenticeship Week is an annual nationwide celebration to showcase how apprenticeships improve and expand career pathways for workers while helping employers drive economic growth across all industries. And whereas, apprenticeships provide American workers tangible skills and industry-recognized credentials while strengthening our nation's economy and helping millions of men and women provide for their families without taking on the financial burden of student loans and other related debt. And whereas, National Apprenticeship Week is celebrating its 12th anniversary of raising awareness of the vital role apprenticeship provides in creating a qualified and highly skilled workforce in diverse industries within Pasco County and across the Tampa Bay region. And whereas, the advancement and well-being of the United States of America depend upon the continued development of skilled workers in their chosen fields. And whereas, Pasco County recognizes the urgent need to prepare and maintain a highly skilled workforce that can meet the current and future demands of the industry and fortify our economy. And whereas, Pasco County recognizes that robust apprenticeship programs provide tangible value to both job creators and apprentices with the potential to increase productivity, improve diversity and inclusion, and reduce recruitment and training costs while providing a pathway to prosperous careers for youth and adult adult job seekers. And whereas, the 2026 National Apprenticeship Week theme, America at Work, Making America Skilled Again Through Registered Apprenticeship", highlights the role of apprenticeships in the high-growth industries. And whereas, the AM Skills Industrial Maintenance Technician, an IMT, apprenticeship program, in partnership with Public Consulting Group, strengthens the regional workforce pipeline and makes it easier than ever for Tampa Bay employers to hire, train, and advance new IMT talent by providing hands-on and online training aligned to industry-recognized competencies. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, that said board hereby declares the week of April 26th, 2026 through May 2nd, 2026 as National Apprenticeship Week in Pasco County. Done and resolved in regular session with a quorum present voting the 7th day of April, 2026. Move to approve. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. David, thank you for coming forward. I think Joe Amowah should come on up, too, cuz a lot of our utility folks are coming from that utility program that's shown so well, and Mike, as well. Um I was up in DC, and we were talking with the Department of Labor, and they wanted

They talked about this resolution, so I wanted to bring it forward. So, I apologize not reaching out probably stronger to Tom from from AM Skills to be here, but it is a very important project. Um AM Skills is doing a great job for us, and we we know that out there there's there's so many jobs that are unfilled cuz people are untrained. So, I think the work we're doing here is a great direction, and I'd love to After David and Joseph can speak, we'd all go out for a picture that we can send up to DC, as well as the resolution. Thank you, David Engel, Planning and Economic Development Director. I just want to let you know that this county is the most proactive innovative county when it comes to job skills training in any county or local government I've worked in over 40 years. Uh we have a proactive way of uh identifying career tracks for young folks in our school system, whether it be the community college or into the public schools here in in Pasco County. And I've attended some uh boot camp graduations and the enthusiasm and passion of these young people to have a career track that allows them to actually stay in the county and participate in their future. You know, our biggest resource is our kids. And if we can keep them here in the county instead of moving elsewhere, that's great for the county and great for our future. And skilled indigenous jobs uh forces in as the best thing we can do to attract new businesses here in the county. And Joseph Amwa, he's a case study in how successful our apprenticeship study is our program is. So, I'll turn it over to him. Thank you. All right. Joseph Amwa, utilities director. So, yeah. This has been very beneficial for us, especially in the utilities, because we've been able to absorb a lot of these students into our operations team, O&M. They get their hands-on experience, able to work um with within our operations and maintenance group and engineering teams. So, this gives them a really great opportunity to really um migrate, transition smoothly to work within our department. So, I think this offers a great opportunity for the students. And we'll continue to work with AmSkills team to absorb. And it helps fill all the vacancies that we create. And it gives them the necessary tool and there's always career progression for these these students that we absorb. So, we're really really um excited about this opportunity to continue to work to absorb uh some of the students that come through the AmSkills program. Thank you. All right. Let's go up for a picture. Fantastic.

Next order of business the consent agenda. On it we have two items pulled. Mr. Chairman. I think you've got C18, C19, and C20 that also need to be pulled. Okay. They all require a commissioner abstain. Okay. So as well as N73, N74 withdrawal. What else are we going to pull? C19. C18, C19, and C20. Well, who has to abstain from C19? She has to abstain from C19. You have to abstain from C18 and C20. Okay. So um C18 and C20 are the are the black what that I could argue it doesn't require an abstention for Commissioner Starkey just because it's the action the board has already taken which she abstained from, but in an abundance of caution, since she abstained from both those actions, abstaining from the resolution makes sense. C-19 is a landscaping uh grant redevelopment landscaping grant program for target areas. It is my understanding, and Commissioner Yeager can confirm, that her husband's business is in that target area and has applied for a landscaping grant. And so, in again, legislative items usually don't require abstention, but since there could be a direct benefit to the commissioner's husband, I have it recommended that she abstain from this action. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mr. County Attorney has always done a great job giving us a very conservative way and a safe way to go, so we appreciate that. Move approval on all the other items left on this consent. Second. All in favor say I. I. I. I. And now we'll go to C-19 first. All in favor say I. I. We need a motion and a All right, sorry. Move to approve C-19. Approve C-19. Second. All in favor say I. I. I. And Commissioner Yeager? I abstain. Okay, now items C-18. Need a motion for that. Move to approve C-18. Second. All in favor say I. I. I. Commissioner Starkey, you want to abstain? Yeah, I want to abstain. Do it again. Okay, so that's 4-0 with Commissioner Starkey abstaining. Item C-20. Move to approve C-20. Second. All in favor say I. I. I. And Commissioner Starkey? Abstain. Okay. All right, thanks care of the consent. Thank you, Mr. County Attorney. You're welcome, sir. And I'll go to R-22. Office of Disaster Recovery Resources quarterly update.

I think you I'm Chuck Lane, uh director of the office disaster recovery resources. I'm joined by Tim LaGoochie with IEM International. Both Both of us will be available to answer questions following my presentation. So, this will be uh my second quarterly report to the board to update you on the status of the Better Future program. Thank you. So, this is how the funds were budgeted in our action plan. Uh and the amounts have not changed. The hopeful launch dates have shifted while we're working hard to get these programs up and running. The one program we've launched is the individual housing program. Our Our volume Our volume in that program is accelerating and I'll provide more detail on that in a moment. We will be launching the planning program later this month. This will include county efforts surrounding our infrastructure and mitigation needs. I will uh uh it will also provide an opportunity for some county departments and our non-profit partners to evaluate evaluate pathways to build capacity in the organizations. Our action plan budgets $100 million for construction of affordable housing. Last week, we launched a very limited solicitation for housing projects that are shovel ready. This is an effort to get much needed housing under construction and available for occupancy as soon as possible. The application period closes on April 28th and we'll launch a broader solicitation for housing projects in May or June. For small businesses and non-profit recovery, uh there'll likely be several components to this. Uh we hope to begin accepting applications in the spring uh to fund repairs to damage suffered by business owners. Infrastructure and mitigation will be a one pot of money totaling $206 million. We've made a great deal of progress working through a list of potential projects. This program will have the hardest impact on our ability to meet the compliance you do the the requirement that we spend 70% of the funds on low-to-moderate income folks. Right now, we're gathering data on potential projects uh to help the board make informed decisions. Um I hope to have more concise information for you later this month or in or in early May. We'll launch our public services program over the summer. Some of our county departments and our nonprofit partners Excuse me. We'll call back. We'll benefit from that program. I think I'm I think I'm okay now. Thank you. So, next slide, please. So, how have we done so far with the individual housing program? Uh we've calculated awards totaling $46.8

million. We're 4 months into the program, and we're approaching the 25% uh mark of the $205 million that were originally budgeted. Looking at the graph on the left, the blue bars represent the number of awards shown on the left column, and the green line shows the dollar amounts corresponding to the right column. The volume we're seeing is still accelerating, and we're getting more and more applications uh to the construction phase. I think uh we'll be at peak volume when I present my next quarterly report in July. Next slide. So, this is a graph showing applications we've that we have that have been submitted in our system shown by each district. We can't do a whole lot until an application is submitted. Even when an application is submitted, it's almost never complete because we need additional information, and these types of applications are shown in the blue portions of the bars. The orange shows denied applications plus duplicate and withdrawn applications or any applications that that aren't going to move any forward move further any forward. Uh we've denied 69 applications, and three of those have been converted to approval upon denial. That all happened last week. 300 applications shown in green have been approved. Next slide, please. So, looking at application data county-wide, you can see that more than half of our applications in our queue have not been submitted yet. Uh one of the biggest challenges to a program like this is people give up and and don't complete an application. FEMA asks us for a lot of information uh in our application, and people get overwhelmed by it. We're required to to compile this application this uh information. Our case managers have been reaching out to to applicants who seem to have stopped progressing with their application, and we're helping them get to a submitted status. Of the submitted applications, we've processed 74% of them. That's up That's up from 40% uh a few weeks ago. And next slide. So, this is a map uh has a pin with the location One second. My phone is doing it on his own. Okay. I didn't even touch it. It's on my lap.

That happened to me at a at at a funeral, Dr. Gill's wife's funeral, three times. I didn't touch it. Uh this map has a pin for the location of each application we have in our system. It serves as a as a heat map that really closely represents where we saw them the the significant damage in the hurricanes. And next slide. So, if you look closely, this map um shows the locations of the homes where we've calculated awards. Similar to the previous map, obviously less volume. I um can I ask a question real quick? Yes. I'm curious these ones like Quail Ridge and Sun Coast Lakes and Moon Lake, I mean, what So, Helene was flooding and Milton was I mean, was storm surge.

Correct. Milton was heavy rain on the east side. So, what happened on the Sun Coast? Well, this this is us responding to the applications, and we do a very thorough job of reviewing them to make sure that they do qualify, that they did sustain damage from the storms. I can't speak to these specifically. There was riverine flooding in that card.

Yeah, there was in Milton. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay, next slide. So, our major accomplishments accomplishments so far, we fast-tracked our first award and uh and completed it in 22 days. As far as we know, this is the fastest uh award from program launch in in the history of CDBG DR programs. We did this uh to host a media event and create awareness of our program, and it worked. We really got a strong spike of applications that week. We probably created some unrealistic expectations by pushing the award out so quickly, but it was certainly worth the effort. We've completed the onboarding of 17 contractors and we're quickly uh moving projects into the construction phase. Uh I want to thank Tembry's team in media media relations and communications for their help with our public outreach. We've held 46 in-person events to create awareness and help people with their applications, and this doesn't include webinars we've conducted, uh podcasts, media interviews. We've really taken every opportunity and we've sought out opportunities um to get in front of people to create awareness of this program. Wow. Our program's been available to residents with incomes over 80% of area median income and up to 120% of area median income for folks who are still displaced from their home. Just last week, we expanded that criteria to include households with a child five and younger five and younger, a senior 62 and older, or a person with a disability. So, we're helping more people in that higher income bracket. Hopefully, we can expand that even further in the coming weeks. Policies and procedures for each program are due to HUD by September, I believe, uh and we're well ahead of this deadline. Um and as I mentioned earlier, we have an active solicitation for housing projects that are shovel-ready. For next steps, we'll continue to focus on launching the remaining programs as we continue to to press forward and maintain the fast pace of the individual housing program. I'm constantly focused on our process and trying to find ways to reduce our cycle times and get funding out the doors as quickly as possible while remaining compliant across the board. Uh people have been waiting a long time for this level of assistance. So that concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions. Hopefully I don't drop anything again. Ms. Wiego. I have a quick question. So after the person's home has been inspected after um when they've come out, how long is it? What's the next phase of that and then how long does it normally happen till after the inspection until the funding actually happens? So I'm I'm going to ask Tim to come up and and help with that question. Tim is mired in the process of each step that it takes. And we're we're getting a lot of calls

from folks and and you know, questioning the timeline of it. Um each of these steps has a great deal of work that we need to do that that help us make compliant and it's really hard to translate that with people. People are impatient and absolutely understandably so. I'll let Tim talk to the Thanks Sheriff and good morning everybody. Uh just in terms of timeline after an inspection occurs, uh at that point we've calculated their duplication of benefits and we have their prospective scope total. And so if they are a positive award, they move into the environmental process. Uh that typically takes 60 days. It can take more or less. Um if a home is older than 45 years old, it has to go to historic review where it goes to the state historic preservation office for consultation. Uh so that extends the timeline and we have quite a bit of housing stock that um meets that criteria. So about 2 weeks uh and then after that environmental review is completed, we go ahead and vet the project. We update the scope totals if there's any environmental mitigation required and it would be assigned out to a contractor. That contractor stage is dependent on homeowner availability to do the walk-through, but it's about 2 to 3 weeks. So the environmental review process um did you say was 3 months or 2 months? Uh 60 days on average. But it can go up to 75 or it can be done as quickly as 30. Okay. Thank you. So is it is unusual for a CDBG program to have that 45-year review by the state? It It's actually It's actually 50 and and it is, yes. We're We're 40 We're saying 45 because of the length of the of the grant. There's another 5 years on the grant. But it is common. SHIPPO is a very common thing that we have to deal with. I I would think on a on a shorter term uh I mean let's say track housing etc. that development that would be done that wouldn't have the same thing, but so be it. Question for you. The gentleman from that spoke this morning at the Red Cross, I know Kathy you got to talk to him. Um have you guys Did you guys get chance to talk to him? I saw you Chuck you went out there. Um did you have a conversation with him about what his program is different from yours between requirements exactly income but That's what we want to explore. I I want to meet with him and and we've we're going to schedule a meeting. They They have limited funding. They have about a half a million dollars, but if we can find gaps in our programs that they can fill, that's what we want to explore cuz I think we can find some. There's some people we might not be able to help that they may be able to help. And I And I think there's some probably there's some some people that even had smaller repairs that didn't get covered uh weren't taken care of

and I I know I know a couple of folks right off the bat that that come to mind that I want to get with you, but I want to find out that cuz part of the thing is you take the program, get the money, now you're responsible to make sure you're going to cover the insurance with the NFIP. So if you got a $2,000 or a $10,000 repair, it's not covered because you don't want to go through the process to have that coverage. Those are the people we can actually help. Yeah. That That got hurt curtain in our game. Um yeah, I would if you when you do set it up I love to be part of that meeting as well, so please include me. I think it's it's another opportunity like you say for some of the people that got denied or people that didn't even apply because they they knew what the rules were going to be. That I think there's a lot more help we can give these people and I'd like to make sure we take a shot at that. You um question I know we had one gentleman, young man, lower income, wants to be a firefighter. You've got you're looking at his process and I appreciate you jumping in with that. Um but it seems like a lot of those older homes that are on the ground that when we look at the lift is it worth it? Couldn't qualify. Have we had any progress moving any of those forward especially when we get some new folks that come in with their contracts that can do the lifting. Have we had any progress with any anyone even before him coming in? Yeah, we're we're going to see the the raising the home really um along with new construction more than anything. Um we're um we're not raising homes unless it's required by code and that's really a matter of making the funding go further so we can help more people. If it's required by code, it's substantially damaged and most typically that's going to be a demo and rebuild. All right, so I know and Mike help me with this. I know we when we working with the state, we put a lot of money into the Elevate Florida program. I don't know if we get a full return back on that but maybe if we combine that money to go with this money, maybe something if there's a way to do that cuz if we're not getting that return from what we gave them but this would help elevate the programs without depleting as quick as you're you're you're afraid of then it's something we should probably look at and kind of Or is Yeah, let let me speak with emergency management on where we are with the Elevate Homes program. I know we put a significant percentage of dollars into that program. I know there were a lot of applications. Um I'm not sure where the state is because basically we were the funding arm and the state was the execution piece of it but I'll I'll check into that and report

back to you. Okay. Well, then maybe let me especially check on that so good. Any thoughts, questions, Commissioner Starkey? Oh yeah, I've got six. Okay, go first. Okay. Okay, um but I'll jump on this one first. On the did we give $10 million? Is Is that the number that sticks in my mind? I'm not sure. No. We gave 10% I think it was 10% of our H MGP allocation.

That makes me think it was $10. Which it could have been 10 to 15 million.

better get $10 back. I mean, did we have to participate?

was the deal. And my understanding was that would be for Pasco residents. The idea was was that the state through their elevate Florida program would be a little more efficient at allocating those dollars and getting those those pushed out. Yeah, we definitely want to report on elevate Florida. Yes. Um Okay, couple of questions starting with I noticed in your report last week there are a lot of non-compliant with FEMA flood requirements. Can you I mean, so what was going on there? So when when someone gets help like if someone get help from Adalia, for example, and they're in a flood plain, they're required to carry flood insurance. If they don't carry flood insurance and they get hit by Helene or Milton, we're not able to help them. FEMA FEMA funds can't be used in that prop on that property. Our funds can't be used in that property.

So they didn't ask FEMA for help and get that money that that pays for their flood insurance for 3 years? These people, did they not know that was available to them? I think that's probably the case. Is that what you're finding? Yeah. That they did not know that FEMA would come in and pay their flood insurance for 3 years. Yeah.

That's mind-boggling cuz you had have so many that So we need to make sure you know, if this happens again that they know that they that program is out there, right? Yeah. Um on the businesses, you know, one of the one of the big projects I hoped that we would do is fix non-conforming signs that that busted. I still see some, but I had asked staff to go out and make a uh digital recording of signs that got busted in the storm. Did that ever happen? Did we ever get a record of signs on 19 that were busted? We had one on Little Road, too. They've already repaired it, but They're all over. Yeah, they're easily countywide. Yeah, and I saw some on I drove on 301 the other day. I'm just asking if anyone from code ever did that documentation. Cuz I asked for it quite a few times. Um And so there's no answer. So we don't know. I don't know offhand. I'll find out.

Yeah. Um how many Do you know how many businesses are interested in this program? Have we Have they started reaching out to us or I've had some. Um not not a ton Not a ton of people have reached out to me on with businesses, but prior to our prior to launching a program and what we want to do first with the businesses is is help repair damage and signs can be part of that. There will be an outreach component. We will get in touch with as many businesses as we can to let them know that our opportunity is coming. I just don't know at least in my district and I'd love to know about the other commissioner's district since since most of the damage in my district was Helene storm surge. I don't know of very many businesses that had had any issues because they were not right on the edge. Um And then in Milton we had river flooding of the Enclote. My house got flooded, but um again, I don't know many businesses that in again, just my district that had issues from Milton. Um Uh on the trailer parks, we were talking about buying some of them out. What What has the evolution been in that? So with the $100 million that we have budgeted for for the housing program, housing construction program, I'm going to recommend uh communicating with the county administrator that we pull out $20 million for a a potential buyout program. Now, buyout programs can be very be very complicated with this funding because we buy out a mobile home park or even an RV park, we're required to make sure that those people are relocated properly. And that often times can cost three, four times the cost of the land. Um so we'll have to really evaluate that, but I think pulling that money out at the beginning is a wise thing to do and then if we the board ops not to go to a buyout program, we could spend that money on we could repurpose that funding. I I again just speaking in my district which I know better than all of yours, there is a a travel trailer park on County Road 54 that I have visited many times with many governors in a heavy rain event or a hurricane where it goes under water and I think J- JP might have seen the photos um where they're they're under water. It's a travel park and it's in the Anclote River basically. So um I'm hoping that we really can do something with that one. Um do you have an estimate of what it costs to live lift houses? Do you do we know what you're allocating towards that? I've been asked this a lot. Well we're our program allows us to put up to an additional $100,000 towards a home that needs to be elevated. It's much less

costly when you're doing it with new construction than when you're raising an an existing home. Well that depends on if you're in the limb wall line or not. Um I think it's a couple hundred thousand. I know that we we have some limits uh two to three hundred thousand dollars on some programs to to do elevations. It's expensive.

personally but um we got a bid on ours that was ridiculous. My house is seven 17, 1800 square feet. Um Okay, I think those were my questions. I think Commissioner Weatherman has it. Commissioner Weatherman.

Chair. So I think everybody's having a hard time getting customers in the door because the there's an income discriminatory factors in all of this. Yeah. And I'm not going to belabor that cuz you all know my feelings towards it. Um So, what's it? 70/30 or 60/40 split on housing? Of the total 600 plus million. What what's what's the question? What 60% of this fund these funds are supposed to go towards housing. Uh we Well, right now we have over we have 52% of our funds. There's no requirement. Our action plan is 52% going towards housing.

Okay, so over half of it. 205 million for individual housing, 100 million towards new construction.

Okay, so we voted earlier today to to turn down a multi-family project that was going to pay full freight on taxes. Full freight on taxes. With that level of money that we're talking about putting on taxpayer-subsidized apartments, and you kind of see this board's temperament towards apartments, I'd really like to know how many units are you looking to build, and what's the cost to build an apartment complex complex or per door? Because there's enough money here that we could end up having thousands of units put across this county. And so, I think we need to be very deliberate in the decision-making process when it comes to the housing piece, especially when it comes to apartments. Because Chief back there is going to have to service them on a fire issue. We're going to have to have sheriff's department. You know, if they're going to be subsidized, no different than Live Local, in my opinion. We're going to still have to figure out a way to provide services to these places. So, I really would like to know, and then I was really it really irked me to see an open cattle call online to have apartment developers for this space to come in. I know there's the rationale behind it, but all it does is create a a feeding frenzy and you get all sorts of characters that are coming and going to want to meet with us on selling us why their taxpayer subsidized affordable housing project is the greatest thing under the sun. And so I think we need to be very careful. And we need to have a true plan and we need to know the cost. Because the last thing I'm going to stand for is have sprawling multi-family development come across this county that's dis- that's discounted. We're trying to build fire stations, we're trying to hire officers, we're trying to figure out a way to, you know, manage our tax base. And this could be worse than Live Local if we're not careful because of how much money's there. So I'd like to know what it costs to build a complex uh 2-300 units. That seems to be what comes before us regularly. And those are on 15 to 20 acre sites historically. What it costs per door and then what the subsidy would be. That way we know what we're dancing with and exactly how much fun because your program could be amended to add more money into the program. And I don't want to be bamboozled or have some boondoggle come in and we're caught flat-footed on it. So I just want to be very direct and up front in the in the public setting of my position on this when it comes to the housing piece. Um I'm suspect of the whole program. I don't like how it discriminates against

people based on their income bracket. I think that's wrong. We all pay taxes. And you know, the the dual working household, yeah, on paper they might make a good living, but they're living month to month between mortgage, insurance, car payments, family, whatever. And so I I really think I wish the congressman was still here that way he could He's a His staff's already heard my frustration. I'm very grateful to them, by the way, Congressman Villaraigosa and his team for hearing us out. But we've got to get government out of the way and get this bureaucratic process out of the way so we can truly help people and not just talk about it. People are giving up because it's taking too darn long. We're working against ourselves. This program works against ourselves and I think it discourages people to do it, which is I think probably the intent. That way folks can't get their money back to go to work for them. So, generally I'm frustrated with the program. Y'all know this. And uh I hope to see some real changes to it. If not, I really like to start seeing some breakdowns on what you all are thinking, especially on the multi-family piece. And then where you're looking at building those those potential sites. And then who you're going to be working with, I guess time will tell. So, thank you, Chair. Thank you. Mr. Bowman. Um I know we're we're paying to lift homes in different areas, but here on the east side there's a few homes over here, maybe 10 or 12 homes, they're in a flood area and I've just recently found out that we possibly are not going to be able to change uh the way the water flows or moves away from these homes that it looks like and they've been flooding for years and years that maybe there's poss- is there a possibility here we could buy out those homes so there would not be homes there where they would continuously flood in the future. Our action plan provides for that we for that activity. We can do that. It's eligible. It wouldn't be eligible at all. It is eligible. It's an eligible activity. Yes.

All right. I'll uh I'll talk more with Mr. Bowman and see if we can get get with you and and talk about it. And I'll just add add in um and I I share you I share your concerns with these apartments coming in. We had one visit me from New York and they were looking for like $140,000 a unit subsidy and be tax free.

Get the ones in Vegas, too.

And tax free. It's like, are you kidding me?

Yes, crazy. So, and and Chuck and I have talked about that etc., but um yeah, we want to be careful what we do there. One of One of the things is low-income areas. So, it doesn't have to be a low-income home. I want I want the board to kind of think about this as we go forward as you're trying to get the housing first, which is good. But, if we're going to run short, I think infrastructure in low-income areas is probably very, very important to do. Good job creating things that could could help. But, it's going to be something that in the maybe the 6 months time, whatever time it be, maybe we start looking at doing those things cuz a lot of those roads get worse, much worse with the water. I know the Hudson Sea Ranch area. Signal Cove got some issues, so you may be able to do some improvements that could actually take less some of the strain off our great you the road paving utility that we put in place. If we can take some of those houses in the low-income areas off the list and put them in for that, that actually frees up money to go spend more of it on other things as far as other road projects that we could do. So, as as you go forward, and I appreciate all you trying to do, taking all the calls and all the information you got to look at, and a lot of things to look at to try to get these things through. But, I think the next quarter we might have more information about what that may be a better stepping point for us to figure what we what we may start wanting to change in the department in the plan. I I think we're getting very close on the infrastructure piece to bringing the board in and getting the board involved in that. I think we made a lot of progress. There's a There's There was a ton of projects at the beginning, and we're we're working through that. I've been working directly with the county administrator on this. When When are we going to look be looking at those? I I mean, I'm I'm hoping within the next within the next month, we might have some some really solid information to share with the board. That's That's my hope. By the end of this month, or early May. And it's it's my understanding we're we want to look at projects that are pretty much shovel-ready so that we can get it through the process. Right now, that's a housing project that housing RFP that I have on the street right now. We're we're soliciting for projects that are shovel-ready.

But also infrastructure projects. That's what the Yeah, the the infrastructure pieces, Commissioner, would be those that we could realistically achieve within 5 years. Some are in in design phase, some are in planning phase, and so we want to make sure that the odds of success on those before we decide to commit any dollars to them are are going to be high probability. I do have an answer for you on Elevate Florida. It was approximately 11 11.5 million that was allocated. As of currently, um Pasco County residents put in 597 applications. Uh of those 597 applications, 53 are moving forward. So, how much money is that? I do not know the answer

That's what that's the magic question. Okay, I just had a question on what What was the last subject that you were just talking about? See, you knocked it out of my head. Infrastructure. Uh no.

Infrastructure jobs, apartments. Well, on the multi-family um the RFP is out, correct? Yes. Because I've been asked someone asked to meet with me on a project, and I just checked with the county attorney, and we cannot meet with any applicants. Question is whether whether your solicitation is being processed under the purchasing ordinance or not. I'm being processed by purchasing by by by by That's not the question. Whether whether you are following the you're following the if if it if this is a procurement under the purchasing ordinance, then and it's on the street, then there is a cone of silence that they shouldn't be talking to anybody. Is the purchasing director here? Yeah, Chairman, that that falls on me to post it. That just muddied the waters a bit for all of us. There's people calling and want to meet with us all the time. Well, now that the RFP is out, let's let's hear what the rules are.

Okay, Robert purchasing director. While purchasing did not put out the solicitation, it is still under the ordinance, so you should not be meeting with anyone. The cone of silence is in effect. If you have anyone that's bothering you or questioning you, please send them to my office and we'll be happy to address it with them. All right. Anything else for Chuck? I I did have something and dang it. Well, we can take it up with her later on then. Yeah. All right. Interesting. Let's close that and go to committee reports. Thank you very much. Appreciate

Tim, can you go by the clerk's for your last name, please? Thank you. Ready for this? Yes. Okay. Yeah, I um went to the uh Vincent House to uh look at the new homes that they're going to build in that area for for those in need that do not have a place to stay. Uh The homes are very well done. Uh they said they could I think 39 homes totally uh in this in this project at the Vincent House. Um some very happy people that were not able to have a place of their own are going to be able to have a place of their own and really turn their lives around to where they never thought they could be. So, it's uh there was a lot of work going into that. Uh David Lambert, you got to give him kudos for all the work they've put in that too. And it's like everything else, it takes takes all it takes is money and and the heart and will to be able to produce and uh that's all come together in this Vincent House project and it's very uh very well done. The homes are very well built and uh it's really um really good to see it and see that coming along to be a nice project where there's 39 homes they're going to have in that area. Mr. Oakley? Just a question on that. Okay.

Did Did you happen to know I know they put a lot of infrastructure in place, which is great. Did they talk about what it takes to build an additional house from this point on? You mean after the 39? Well, they got So, 39 is all that are that are funded, are they? No, they actually have I think 11 going up right now that are funded, but Maybe you could find out what it costs The park is where that is, that neighborhood will hold 39 total. So, I don't know exactly. I think they said it it would cost them about $140,000 per home. Okay. And that um uh a home like this out in the regular neighborhood, it's whatever would cost probably be a home that would sell for like 250. Yeah. Okay. So, but I do remember that and they're were very well built. I mean, you go in them and uh very substantial building and you can imagine those folks and I met one or two of them that were going to be in one of these homes. They're very, very happy people that be able to have their own home. So. Anything else? Chair. Chair, yes. Okay. Mr. May? Chair. No, no, no. Hang on.

same subject?

I I have I have quick um answer to that. I spoke with David Lambert last week, Kathy Pearson, Assistant County Administrator of Public Services. And for the Vincent um project, he needs an additional 2 million, which he is going to be applying for DR money for that. DR? CDBG It is out. So, he's in the RFP that went out? I I don't know if he's I don't know who's applying right now. I think this would be probably a different a different RFP. We we the one that Chuck and his team have put out is is specifically for shovel ready projects like they're ready to go tomorrow. Um the the the next phase which is I think Chuck is wanting to be May or Yeah. Yeah, May or June would we would take applications and compete those dollars based on projects. So this one could compete in that in that And I I agree with the county attorney. They'll those are definitely shovel ready cuz you just put them over there and Um I do have a question on those. Mr. Starr. And I I'm sorry I missed I I should have I planned to be there and then I forgot when I was driving back from Dade City. Uh I hope that there are different elevations that everyone isn't going to look the same, number one. And number two, I hope we are putting some shade trees around these guys so they're not cooking in the sun every day. They will be adding trees. I can tell you that. We talked about it. I won't help them any. They'll look In the summer it'll look pretty but that's it.

And but far as the the look of the homes, most of them are pretty much the same. They're they're different colors. Uh and they're going to they have not added any trees and and uh our chairman mentioned him about our tree ordinance. Possibly we'll be able to help them except for crepe myrtles. We would not be able to help them on those. Well, it would be nice if we could you know, usually they have different elevations. Same floor plan, just the front looks a little different. Which keeps it from being you know breaks the monotony.

When you add the trees it'll break that up, I think.

That will help.

And they're and the homes are different colors so And I'm glad Commissioner Waitman was there to support this public housing project. It's 13 years 13 years ago. Just there for the end. So what Commissioner Diego was there as well as myself as well. Yeah. Yeah. So, Thank you, Chair. So, something when we looked at if we can put Commissioner Oakley's pictures back up or somebody else has photos. So, talking with the co-op crew, it costs more to put the infrastructure in the ground than the actual housing. So, that was that was the bulk of the price. But, if we're going to do projects like this and briefly mentioned it with with Carballo, if we're going to approve projects like this, it's There's a There's a substantial amount of parking in this community. Doesn't need to be.

clear that a lot of these folks probably can't afford a vehicle Yeah. or use Uber or public transit. And if we're going to embark on projects like this in a partnership, I think we need to look at our policies and especially as they go into the next phase, and shrink the level of parking that is in here to put more homes in. And I mean the the site There's great topo on the site, so the elevations are are going to be different just by the the topographical nature of this. But, if we can get out of our own way and not have as much parking that is here, we could fit more homes on this site and help more people. So, I don't know what the what the rules are what we would change or an exception, but um we're really you know, where the DR funds can come in is on a project like this, not cut ourselves short and either be all in on a site or not just halfway do it like we're going to do a project like this, we need to be all in. So, something I I noticed in in in driving through the neighborhood was it's a lot of parking which prevented more houses to go in there. So, just a thought on that subject. So, Commissioner Oakley. I just noticed that. Also, it it didn't seem like it's an Uber by minutes to me. I did not ride through the whole place but there for those few that we could see right close by where we were having a meeting. Uh these folks are also I mean they don't have a car but they could get an Uber to come there and pick them up so there needs to be some parking there for them. They also may have case workers that are coming from out of out of the Vincent House not necessarily that are stationed right there but somewhere else coming to visit with them. Uh for their care needs and things of that nature. So we do need certain amount of parking for for them for those homes. Kathy, maybe you can get us a snapshot of what's going on there how the parking looks so that we can take a look at it and I think at some point a good presentation of this would be a a good good thing for the board to see. Mr. Starkey. Um I want to echo what Commissioner Weiteman said. I'm so glad you brought it up because um I have um mentioned this to the folks at YFA and if I can I'm send this to Gina and she can put it up. Um they have a project on on Trouble Creek that is a subsidized housing for Can I stop you for a second? If they're going to be an applicant for the thing that's coming up there's a cone of silence. We shouldn't be discussing

No, I'm just talking about the parking and the the people they there's no way they can drive. But they had to follow our parking regulations so what I said what I have suggested is maybe save the space for parking in our regulations but make it a park for now. Cuz you never know if something may flip to a regular apartment but you can you can just not build all the parking space but have it if needed and use it as a park. Um and as far as the um the Uber and all that I have seen projects um one comes to mind in Spokane I think it was where they have a covered shelter for people to wait for their Ubers and lifts, and that may be appropriate in this space. Yeah, so I've I've spoken

You never see more than I've never seen two cars there. I'm sure you drive by Trouble Creek a lot. That These people can't There's no way they can get a driver's license, but they have all that parking with you know, so. I just have something to add before you go further, but sure. Uh I would like to see a project, Kathy, so you know. I would love to see a project similar to this in the East Pasco County cuz we do have the same needs over here. Uh I have a property in mind that would fit. I'm not going to talk about it right now, so but uh it would fit and and be in a pretty good location for something like this in the East Pasco County. And we have a lot of citizens that have these same needs here in our area, too. So. Okay. Good. Good. Is that what you needed? Yeah. Okay. Mr. Starkey? Um let's see. Um I went to the Metropolitan Ministries Bridge Builders Luncheon in Tampa. It was amazing. That speaker, I can't remember his name right now, but he just gave one of the best speeches I've heard in a long, long time. Very, very inspiring man. And one of his cool messages was, you know, if you fail, that doesn't mean that that doesn't mean that you should stop. You should learn from it and move on, and everybody fails in things. And and and uh it was just a a great message. Um I was in the Chasco Boat Parade and I want to want to thank um the the Rotary for putting that on. That's my favorite parade. I don't I don't really do street parades, but I absolutely love the boat parade. Um I uh visited a couple of businesses with uh Tom McDonald. We went over to businesses on this side. So, we visited the Clark Dietrich um facility. They are They are so busy there. They make the metal um studs for mostly commercial and and large buildings. They're doing the new USF football stadium. Um and I think they're doing our jail, too. But, they sell to a distributor, not direct to the public. But, um they were very excited to learn about AMskills. They're going to come over and take a look and you know, we're working on bringing our program to the east side and they're very interested. Um they've got a They They They're just almost 24 hours there. They're so busy. And um all that all that pipe that you see there and there's more. That's going to be gone in 2 days. And then they refill it. And they're they're bringing in material 40,000 Let's see if I See that roll there? One of those is either 40,000 lbs or 20,000 lbs. And 40,000 lbs is all you

can bring in in a truck. So, they either have 140 or 220s of steel. And um and those trucks were lined up down the road. I don't I don't have that picture, but they were just lined up down the road ready to bring them in here. It was very very cool um program that they have going on. Um we're going to work on a rapid hire for them. This is I After that, I I had lunch with the folks from Southeast Culvert. And um another uh wonderful company that's come to the east side. And they are 24 hours. An another very busy company. This is a visit that we did a few days later to Fusion 5. They They are in the Trinity Odessa I mean uh West Pasco Industrial Park. Um and uh you met the owner of this company yesterday at AMskills. Um I can't remember his name. It's an Indian name up here. I think it's I think his name is Gon Gon Gandhi Gon whatever. Um, they build laptops and and rugged I iPads, but they're not they're they're not Apple. They're What do they call the other ones? An- Android? No. Windows? Windows guy. I don't know. I I'm an Apple person, so I don't know the name of the other one. Number one in the country. They sell more than anybody else and they're made here in Pasco County. And um and they're working on something um called a lapbook. It's a 15-in screen, so it's a combination between a laptop and a computer. Um, but I I wondered if we carry their their um their rugged they're you know, about that big. Um we should we should be carrying a local company's product. Right now, their products are that the pieces come in from other places in the world and they're assembled here. Uh, but they want to learn how to they want to transition to making all the components here. So, I'm going to try and hook them up with different manufacturers. Um what you're seeing behind us there in this machine is they make a rapid charger. Um, that's number one. It's the number one rapid charger that's being sold in America. And they're testing them right there. They They have an amazing testing um prog- What's the word? Um program and they're guaranteed. So, if something goes wrong with your rapid charger, they will they will replace it. So, very cool company right here in West Pasco Industrial Park. And they um found out about AmSkills. They loved it. He's from Sweden, actually, and was a product of the apprenticeship program in Sweden. And um was very excited to hear that we have

something here, and they immediately came over to AmSkills, and they have donated a They're donating a bunch of equipment to us. And that's That company's called Fusion 5. Um then I went to the uh Delaware River Commissioner Mariano, I don't think you went in the woods, though. They said that you weren't dressed to to go in the woods that day, but you were at the ribbon cutting. But if you if all of you if you get a chance to go see what this company has done here, it's on um Shady Hills. Shady Hills? And that boardwalk that's a like almost a million-dollar boardwalk. And they have this bike trail that's all this gravel here. It's shell that goes for over 2 and 1/2 miles. And it is just amazing what they've done uh in the wild. It's kind of part of the wildlife corridor, but they kept it and managed it themselves instead of giving it over to us. And what's really exciting about this is on the other side of the wildlife corridor is Mitchell 41, which is going to be called Fielden. I don't know if you guys have had meetings um with um West Bay, but I've had many because we've been working on a trail there. And I believe, talking with Keith, we're going to be able to connect this trail system to the trail system over there. And um everyone's really excited about this possibility, and this boardwalk is is just amazing, and it goes way in, so you should should go give that a try while it's not too hot. Um then yesterday um we had the Spectrum check presentation at AmSkills. And um thank you to Senator Hooper and Commissioner Yeager who attended. Um there there were eight eight projects in the state that were awarded these this $15,000 um uh check and we were the number two. And so we had a nice ceremony yesterday and it coincided with the kickoff of our next boot camp and there you see um our our customers there. The gentleman in the light blue shirt in the front, when he was 16 or 17, his mom heard Tom speaking on the radio on a on the weekend and she immediately came to us when we were at Marchman and put him in our after-school program. And when he was old enough, he went to work. We placed him with um Lockheed Martin who had a special contract to work on a project. So right out of high school, he got a great job. And then when that contract went away, he came back to AMskills and now we were in our boot camp mode. He went through the boot camp and he's now with Chromalloy. Chromalloy um they're they're it's the tall gentleman in the back with

blond hair. Um they've taken they've hired so many of our our graduates. They love our program and he spoke to all the uh participants in the boot camp about how he was able to get a great career without any college debt. He's rising up the ladder there and he's just and that's his mom there. They're just so appreciative. So um Yeah, so the gentleman in the suit from Fusion 5 is donating laptops etc. to us and that's what this check is for. So it's going to stretch really stretch our money. So it was it was a great day. And thank you so much for coming. And um that's it for me. All right. Commissioner Yeager. All right, I will be very quick. My first slide. I was at the HCA Florida Sun Lake Emergency free standing ER ribbon cutting and I this first of all it's absolutely beautiful but they will offer emergency services they'll be private exam rooms are fully equipped trauma room ambulette access on-site lab and CTs. So really they can handle some pretty major things there. So that was a beautiful. And I was talking about children and I missed the I missed the group picture but I was there so I had to I said to Jack I said if I don't have a picture I wasn't there so come take a picture with me. So and next slide. And this is going to be great. This is Habitat for Humanity. They are going to be having 20 homes and this was their groundbreaking and they were able to surprise two families to let them know that they were accepted into the program. So it was really cute the the young gentleman on the on the right he was like you get to learn how to cut the grass and there was really it was really cute but it's going to be filled with kids and it's just going to be amazing and I'm I'm super proud of um Is this the one that's across from the county building? Yeah.

Yes. Yes and it's really really beautiful in there. So I'm looking forward to seeing that go up so um yeah so they already have two families and they're looking for more more people to join the program. Excellent. Thank you Michelle I know they get a lot of help from the banks to to come up with those 0% loans so as much as they can do I'd like to see that much more than apartments. To have people get homes so we can make some things happen like that I think it'd be great.

Yes. This project took so long for them to get the shovel in the ground. I I feel bad for them but they worked on this for years. All right that's all I have.

Okay. County an I need about 5 minutes if that's okay. I know we're up against time.

we'll just do it after you. Uh I can. I'm it's up to the board. Would the board like to wait or hear from hear from Mike now? 5 minutes. 5 minutes. I'm good with it. Go ahead. Go. Okay, here we go. Uh I'll move quick. First and foremost, uh April 24th is National Arbor Day uh coming up in the um in the in the US. As I've learned, there there's a Florida Arbor Day, but but regardless, spoke with our parks department and uh we would like to utilize $10,000 of tree mitigation money in order to purchase trees to hand out to the public uh in celebration of National Arbor Day. Right now, I I can't do that with that. So, I'd like a motion to uh to take $10,000 of tree mitigation funds to use to expressly purchase trees that we would give away at three parks, actually. Crews Lake um Second, but make sure they're bigger than last year. Or I think we forgot last year. Yeah, we're we're we're Every Every year we improve. Just a little bit.

I have a motion. Have a second. All in favor say aye. Aye.

Aye. Thank you. Second uh the second piece

stop you for one second? Sure. Don't you have the authority that we gave you to do that? Um I was told that uh when it came to on put planting trees on public property, since these are to give away to the public, they would not be planted on public property. Um okay, one one quick kudo to uh Dr. Bellis's team. As you may be aware, a few years ago, we adopted Lean Six Sigma principles, which is a private industry practice of of process improvement. It's used in manufacturing, health care, worldwide as as a as a as a methodology to uh improve efficiency and in our processes. I'm happy to say that um our our team, we we employ five, maybe six six uh black belts. Mark? In the in the organization, uh we received accreditation as as a provider now. So, our programs for white belt, yellow belt, green belt, and black belts have been nationally accredited. So, we can actually train our folks in order to to do these these processes.

Yes. Well, we won't compete, I promise.

Lean Six Sigma. But we do it well, so kudos kudos to Mark and his team for for for continuing to beat that drum. That's again, that's just good good good government and and efficiency in my opinion. The last thing that I want to mention is in your our strategic plan, we talk about making homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurrent. I'm happy to want to bring Kathy up here and and maybe James Walters to talk a little bit about an initiative that we that the team undertook last week as a move to you know, improve the situation of homelessness in Pasco County. Kathy Pearson, Assistant County Administrator of Public Services. We heard you in January when we did our workshop on homelessness. We're moving the needle even if it's one at a time. I'm proud to to say that we partnered with Catholic Charities. We had a sweep last week. We kept it sort of hush-hush. Thank you to the Sheriff's Department who joined in with us, but James, I'm going to give you 2 minutes and hopefully I don't know if we got some pictures we can show, but Presentation's in the package. So, James Walters, Administrator for Homeless Programs. Thank you for having me. And just real quickly, it was really a historic day in Pasco County. A combined effort among disciplines, among different agencies to come out and really move the needle and we identified seven areas, we made contact in roughly 21 different locations in homeless camps and and moved seven folks off the streets and and into shelter in that one day. We're building that program and we'll bring more successes back to you as we proceed. Great job. Yeah. Okay. We'll send you We'll send you that presentation with some with some pictures there.

Yeah, so I was just about to look for it. Is Do we have it? It's It's not in the packet. It was It was sent separately and so we were going to show them up there. So my my my my apologies for that. That's all I have. Thank you. Okay. Clerk doesn't have anything. County attorney have something for something later so we'll do it afterwards. So we'll break for 1:30 for lunch. This is kind of cool. These are ready for you to sign. That's going to be my laptop. My iPad's too big. I did my phone. Is it still raining? Yeah.