BCS-25-0275

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TranscriptWhat was said at each appearance is below it. Machine transcription, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 49% of 35 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.

1. 1Sep 16, 2025
   Board of County CommissionersC8Consent agendaNo disposition in the minutes

   Open this item →▶ Play from 1:34:29
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   Jack MarianoVice Chair

   1:34:29November was nothing shown. December had a little bit of activity, January had a little bit of activity, and then the next two months had a little bit more. But Uh I talked to JP about, you know. With code enforcement we we try to put things in

   1:34:45We started with the uh pin pan handling ordinance went to a right-of-way ordinance. But we found that if it wasn't done the right way in the right times, it's not effective. And I just wanted him to gonna talk about what he he's had a few days to look at this, but what things can we do to make this program better, more effective, um, and get and getting the value for what we're putting into it.

   Unidentified speakerVoice A

   1:35:06So through the chair, uh thank you. JP Murphy, Director of Building Construction Services for the record. Today we have technical questions. Chris Main, Deputy Building Official for Minimum Standards, is here with me. Uh I think Mr. Daniels may come up and make a few comments as well. Um We took a look at a at at your your concerns particularly after the hurricane and um I I will say there was a there was some learning on both sides uh uh of this relationship, which has been a fantastic relationship with the Sheriff's Office.

   1:35:37Um in fact I I think uh over the years performance has has doubled. You can see that in even the twenty two thousand twenty-four where the n the number of arrests have doubled. But We weren't prepared for unlicensed contracting enforcement following the hurricane because all of our staff was dedicated to doing some of those other activities, recovery, damage assessment, substantial damage uh improvement, the power waiver release thing that we never had to do before. So all of our available

   1:36:07resources were were put towards those efforts. So we didn't, admittedly, did not have a lot of minimum standards efforts out looking specifically for unlicensed contracting. That's not to say it didn't happen. The Sheriff's Office was out looking for unlicensed contracting. Immediately following a storm, a couple things happened. Folks are starting to do muck and gut. You don't need a license for that. Anybody can come in. In fact, we saw that with our nonprofit groups. It takes a little bit of time following the storm for the Real kind of uh contracting and bad acting uh actors

   1:36:37coming in. What a lot of folks didn't realize is the Office of Insurance Regulation also had state level inspectors driving around. We saw them out at at uh at Gulf Harbor certainly uh and some other places, and they were going around grabbing um numbers off of trucks, looking at license plates. Searching Facebook. So there was a lot of that happening behind the scenes. Unfortunately, we just didn't get great data collection of one of the things of the stuff that was happening during those months. It was kind of a little bit frantic. So part of our um our BPI coming forward for budget,

   1:37:07you'll see later, is we're also gonna have two civilian unlicensed contractor inspectors focusing on that to partner with the sheriff's team as well. The sheriff's relationship is critical for for minimum standards because we don't have the power to uh do some level investigations, subpoena, detain and arrest and and do criminal charges. We can only do stuff under the ordinance under the Florida Building Code. Um so strengthening that post-storm in addition are we have a um Um a procurement

   1:37:38going out for post-storm recovery services so that we you know when we have a vendor coming in, that's gonna be an area of focus that we hire additional professionals to do continue to do the the unlicensed contracting enforcement during those significant spikes. You know, the team for on the sheriff's side is two individuals for what we pay for. They work under the economic crimes uh crimes group and they do focus on some pretty big things. Uh and we can uh there's a presentation if you want to see it, otherwise I'll just talk about it. But um I a couple big big

   1:38:08items in two cases alone, two contractors alone, it had over 280 victims with over 2.6 million dollars worth of recovery. So that's why this is important. And oh by the way, our contract contractors spend five dollars on every permit to fund this type of operation because our contractors are also hurt because if the if we have unlicensed contractors going out, they don't have the cost for insurance, they don't have the cost for licensed insurance, and it it affects them as well as our victims. So for those reasons, that's why we feel like this is is is worth your

   1:38:38approval.

   Jack MarianoVice Chair

   1:38:39Yeah, and I and I think it is a good program to go. And again, I wanna just look when I just looked at the data. A lack of data. I says there's gotta be something more to it. And and I was out there when these state inspectors are out there too. So maybe we need to reach out to the state inspectors and get some more data to kind of find out what they found because I think it should be part of this and if we have another storm, the same type of situation. We can learn from it to at least get their data, use it to make it more effective. But I but I I support the program. I just want to make sure we're gonna maximize it best we can.

   Unidentified speakerVoice A

   1:39:05That's a great suggestion. We'll work with Mr. Daniels to see if we can get some better data collection as well throughout the year.

   Jack MarianoVice Chair

   1:39:10Chase you wanna add?

   Chase Daniels

   1:39:14Chase Daniels, Pasco Sheriff's Office. Um thank you very much, uh Commissioner, for bringing this forward. So uh I I did just want to touch on on some stats as well. I know JP has had a presentation as well, but um so so last year um our unlicensed contractor chapters made 44 arrests. Um so in each one of those cases, you know, as JP noted, uh, those are some major cases that that could possibly have uh several victims within each of those cases. Um regarding the the data. I did want to note that we are not the only partners in the in the judicial circuit. So for

   1:39:45instance, right now, we currently have 23 cases that are currently pending with the state attorney's office. So just because there may not be stats or data in in one month or immediately does not mean something didn't happen. It means that we are waiting on our other partners, the state attorney's office, to finish their investigation to move forward with their with their invests and things like that. That as well. So it's just things like that that could skew the those numbers as well. But certainly grateful for the partnership and in what we're what we're doing here. Yeah. Thank you.

   Jack MarianoVice Chair

   1:40:11And to the board that says, you know, n our team and and and Chris Mean and company with JP when we had to go to different places like Senate Manor, whatever, so uh Sea Ranch, Sea Pines. Those guys are out in numbers helping the people every step of the way. So I can understand where they couldn't do what they were doing. But again, I just want to Bring the attention to that and and if we can get some more data that'd be great. I think the state should be able to provide at least something to what that what they found and we can learn from that and and go forward. With that I'll move approval.

   Lisa Yeager

   1:40:38And I just one comment. I did find out JP will make house calls.

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   1:40:42Yeah. Um I I do have a question. I I just saw I think in motion on the

   Unidentified speakerVoice B

   1:40:47court.

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   1:40:47Yeah, I didn't get a second. A second. Okay. Under discussion. Um in Polk County with J Grady Judd, um, they I think it was there, might have been Penels County, they did some unlicensed contractor stings. And when was the last time we did something like that?

   Unidentified speakerVoice A

   1:41:04Uh as frequent as last month.

   1:41:06So we did do something like the newspaper.

   1:41:09We do uh occasionally. Um During the storm they did one in November that netted twelve arrests.

   William Justiniano

   1:41:15Okay.

   Unidentified speakerVoice A

   1:41:15Um part of of the the new partnership by adding some folks on our civilian side is to kinda go out and be the eyes because you know, two people can't see everything.

   William Justiniano

   1:41:24Yeah.

   Unidentified speakerVoice A

   1:41:24So we're trying to spread that out a little bit longer. But um yeah, that we've in fact uh

   1:41:34Yeah. Well we there's one done in September that netted, I believe, 10 arrests, one in May that netted 12 arrests. Um we do a a smaller version of a sting, and then like you might see in one of in some of the southern counties, we'll go out and do kind of one big enforcement in in one area and do some multi-agency stuff. In Pasco, it's basically just kind of us. And we uh we look for different properties uh and try to keep it fresh so that house doesn't get burned and burned by like everybody knows, hey, don't go accept a job over there right now.

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   1:42:04So uh you know, I'm almost done with my um a house that was damaged by the storm. The electricians were out yesterday, I think, finishing up, hopefully. Um But they found a lot of illegal electrical work in my house that we had to fix in the attic, in behind the kitchen walls. That um they got fixed and up to code and they're like, You were close to having your house burned down. Um and then I got a call I got a call from a business Um

   1:42:36it's a cheerleading gym plus a baseball batting cage. A bunch of professional athletes around here came together and and started a batting cage and they just got shut down because all the electrical work that was done in that building. was unlicensed. That's a health and safety issue. There's nothing we can do about that. So You know. Get yeah, I I love this. Yes. And

   Jack MarianoVice Chair

   1:42:58mention just one thing, one one thing I told the JP as well. A lot of these things happen during the weekends too when our teams are there. So we need to make sure you get the flexibility to add that and make those changes so on the weekends we can go out there and keep on it.

   Unidentified speakerVoice A

   1:43:10Yeah, that was a cornerstone of Chris's plan to add the two individuals to make sure that we can have that and unmarked vehicles too.

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   1:43:16A lot of a lot of new roofs get put on on the weekend. It's amazing.

   Unidentified speakerVoice A

   1:43:20I'm amazed how how quickly a roof can go on these days.

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   1:43:24All right. So we have a uh motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Uh next one. Commissioner Mariano.